At its meeting on December 17, the Commission approved asking the community to extend the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST). The public for the extension will be on March 18, 2025. 

“Our SPLOST has helped us move so many great projects forward – from road repair to recreation centers to park improvements and more – that we are asking the community to help us keep that progress going,” says Mayor Lester Miller. “We have a great deal on the horizon that needs to be funded, and the SPLOST is the best way to get them funded…and mostly by people that don’t live here.”  

If the extension is approved, it will provide the funding for the following projects: 

• roads, streets, or bridges, which may include paving, streetlights, sidewalks, bicycle paths, or other pedestrian, public, or user safety enhancements, or any combination of such purposes;  

• public safety facilities, capital equipment used for public safety purposes, or, in the operation of public safety facilities, or any combination of such purposes;  

• economic development purposes to create jobs or promote private investment, which purposes may include airport facilities, or any transportation facility designed for the transportation of people or goods, or capital equipment used for, or in the operation of, such facilities, or a combination of such projects;  

• administrative buildings, a civic center, a convention center, a coliseum, local or regional solid waste handling facilities, local or regional recovered materials processing facilities, a local or regional jail, correctional institution, or other detention facility, a judicial facility, or any combination of such projects;  

• recreational facility, historic facility, or a facility for some combination of such purposes, which purposes may include a park or greenspace, or both;  

• a water capital outlay project, a sewer capital outlay project, a water and sewer capital outlay project, a stormwater capital outlay project, or a combination of such projects; 

• retiring previously incurred general obligation debt or revenue bond debt secured by intergovernmental contract or a combination of such purposes;  

• or any combination of two or more of the foregoing capital outlay projects, which may include any necessary demolition. 

  “From our need of road repairs to supporting public safety to continue advancing economic development, this SPLOST will make a huge impact on the future of our entire community,” says Mayor Lester Miller.  

A SPLOST is one-percent sales tax that can be used for various capital outlay projects and purposes, including the retirement of previously incurred general obligation debt. The current SPLOST began in April 2018 and is expected to be completed in September 2025. The new SPLOST – should it be approved – would begin when the current ends. A study by Enterprise Innovation Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology showed that 71.4% of the SPLOST is paid for by people traveling to and through Macon-Bibb County.  

To read the full resolution, click here.