Cobb SPLOST Campaign Goes Down to the Wire

Cobb County’s SPLOST special election set for Tuesday has drawn 6,522 votes so far, according to numbers the county released following the conclusion of early voting on Friday.

The 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax is the only item on the ballot. If the SPLOST passes, it will kick in Jan. 1, 2012, for four years and keep the overall sales tax in Cobb at 6 cents per dollar. If the referendum fails, the expiration of the current SPLOST Dec. 31 will result in a total sales tax of 5 percent in the county next year.

Official figures show that 2,088 people voted from Feb. 21 to March 4 at the county Board of Elections & Registration at the , 3,554 people voted in person this past week at the Board of Elections and five satellite locations, and 880 people submitted mail-in ballots.

The county sent out an additional 220 vote-by-mail ballots, which are due at the Lawrence Street post office by 5 p.m. Tuesday or the Board of Elections by 7 p.m. Tuesday to count. Given that the September 2005 SPLOST referendum passed by 114 votes out of some 40,000 cast, those remaining mail ballots could be important.

The early votes represent about 1.7 percent of Cobb’s 392,589 active registered voters, county spokesman Robert Quigley reported.

More than 214,000 people voted in Cobb County in the general election Nov. 2; fewer than 23,000 returned for the runoff four weeks later for three judicial races.

Cobb projects that the 1-cent tax will produce $492 million over four years to pay for capital improvements across the county, including transportation and parks.

Of that total, an estimated $34 million will be , including transportation projects totaling more than $29 million.

Transportation Projects

Road Projects

Concord Road Improvements; $11,755,000

Windy Hill Rd R/W, Intersection Improvement & PE; $2,000,000

Belmont Hills Connector Road; $2,137,000

Ward Street Improvements; $1,500,000

Village Parkway Improvements; $1,500,000

Reed Road Improvements; $321,000

Intersection Improvements; $1,275,407

Congestion Relief Improvements; $1,275,407

Paths / Sidewalks; $1,069,000

Resurfacing; $4,366,000

Pavement Markings; $214,000

Curb & Gutter; $1,069,000

Bridge Rehabilitation; $534,000

Studies; $214,000

Transportation Subtotal; $29,229,814

Parks and Recreation Projects

Park Improvements; $2,137,000

Parks & Recreation Subtotal; $2,137,000

Public Safety Projects

Public Safety Facility Improvements; $427,000

Public Safety Equipment; $1,100,000

Public Safety Subtotal; $1,527,000

Keep Smyrna Beautiful

Recycling Facility Improvements; $1,040,504

Keep Smyrna Beautiful Subtotal         $1,040,504

BUDGET GRAND TOTAL; 33,934,318

Polls Tuesday will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

You can check your voter registration status and polling place at Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s website. Cobb offers maps of the polling places here.

Cobb Elections Director Janine Eveler said that tabulating the votes Tuesday will take the same amount of time with the one-issue election as with a full ballot because her office has to get the reports from the same number of polling places, all of which are using electronic machines. The results will be available on the county government website and on Cobb Channel 23 on Comcast cable television.

Smyrna-Vinings Patch will have continuing coverage of the voting on Election Day.