Duluth Intends to Participate in Proposed SPLOST Extension

Duluth intends to participate in Gwinnett County’s extension of a one-cent sales tax to fund local improvements. The Gwinnett County Commission is expected to vote soon on placing a referendum for either a five-year or a three-year extension on the November General Election ballot.

In a called meeting Monday (July 22) night, the Duluth City Council voted to authorize Mayor Nancy Harris to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the county to receive its share of the tax known as SPLOST, the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. The agreement specifies a three-year SPLOST extension from April 1, 2014 through March 31, 2017. 

“I hope the public realizes all the excellent projects the city has done with SPLOST funds,” Harris said. There are a lot more things the city would like to do, she added.

Ken Sakmar, the city’s finance manager, presented a proposed five-year city project SPLOST list that had been revised to three years. The county asked the city to decide on percentages for distribution of the sales tax funds, he said. “The county will convert those figures into whole dollars,” he said.

Duluth’s chosen percentages for the five-year extension are 72 percent for Roads, Streets and Bridges; 8 percent for Public Safety, 12 percent for Parking, 7 percent for Recreation, and 1 percent for Administration.

For the three-year extension, Duluth’s figures are 68 percent for Roads, Streets and Bridges, 5 percent for Public Safety, 21 percent for Parking, 5 percent for Recreation, and 1 percent for Administration. 

(See the charts attached to this article. The three-year list is shorter. The projects are color coded to reflect the possible level of funding based on sales tax collections).

Sakmar said firm figures on the amount of anticipated tax proceeds were not yet available.

Some of the past projects the city has used SPLOST funds to accomplish include the new Senior Citizens Community Center at W.P. Jones Park, The West Lawrenceville Road/McClure Bridge Road reconstruction, the Chattapoochee Dog Park, The Western Gwinnett Bikeway, and the Rogers Bridge Park Canoe Launch.

SPLOST monies have also been used to purchase public safety equipment and fund park playground improvements.