While some of the ink in this space has already been spilled on the 2026 elections, I’ve been remiss in giving a nod to the 2025 items Georgians have on the ballot right now.  Early voting is already underway to decide two races for the Public Service Commission, races put on hold from a prior cycle by a judge.

We also have some local races and ballot measures in various parts of the state, one of which as a new resident of Savannah has piqued my interest. Voters in Chatham county and quite a few others around the state are voting to enact or renew Special Purpose Option Local Sales Taxes, or SPLOSTs.  

I’m going to focus on those today as they often don’t get the attention they deserve. One often used criticism is that these measures often appear at random times when voters aren’t paying attention.  At least those on this ballot get some billing with a statewide race and some local elections to help boost turnout.

 I’ll also use the Chatham SPLOST renewal as a guide for how I decide to support or oppose these kinds of measures as someone who is generally a right of center conservative, but also tries to be more pragmatic than idealistic. Idealism is best suited for national races where party identification will decide the tone and tenor of who sets an agenda. The pendulum should swing a bit more to pragmatism where filibusters aren’t an option and problems actually have to be solved.

The first is understanding that a SPLOST has those first two letters for a reason. The “special purpose” means voters have the opportunity to decide on infrastructure projects of some type that are above and beyond the usual operating budget of a local district.

Sometimes they are even more specialized, as they can be transportation or education specific. The one proposed for Chatham is a general purpose tax that will fund various types of projects, from transportation, drainage and flood mitigation, public safety, and beach renourishment among other projects. 

Therein lies my first test. In looking at the projects voters are asked to fund, I would count the vast majority of them as “needs” instead of “wants”. I’ve lived in places where it was clear leaders looked at the timeframe for a SPLOST, calculated how much revenue could be generated by “just a penny”, and then filled it with their whims of the moment.

At a recent press conference promoting Chatham’s SPLOST, a reporter asked what was different about this measure, in that some prior divisiveness seemed quelled this time around. As a newcomer not knowing the history, I leaned in to hear the answer.

In the past, the project list was usually decided by the Mayor of Savannah and the Chairman of the County Commission. From both a political and geographic perspective, that tended to make the project list Savannah-centric.  

This time, the Mayors and Commissioners and their staff went to the same meeting.  Elected officials worked in one group, their administrative staff worked in another. The product was a list that addresses needs county wide, from the islands to the western suburbs.

One criticism of these ballot measures is that once passed, they never go away. That is largely and unfortunately true. That said, the “T” in SPLOST doesn’t stand for temporary. If at any time a majority of voters believe that they’re not getting a return on this infrastructure investment, they can and should vote no.  

On the upside, the vote in Chatham won’t actually raise my taxes. It will continue the current sales tax rate I’m now paying, which is in line with most other counties in the state.

What am I getting for that money?  More than twice the amount I’m investing in new infrastructure. A selling point for me is that more than 40% of the sales taxes paid in Chatham are from tourists who live more than 50 miles away.  Add in the sales taxes paid by commuters in neighboring counties and my fellow residents are only paying about half. 

Then we get to leverage that money for more money.  Both the state and federal governments have matching funds available for many of the projects on the list.  The local penny I pay is matched by a penny paid by a non-local resident. Those dollars are then matched against state and federal tax dollars I’ve already paid, bringing them back home.

This benefits us again as those dollars are infrastructure, meaning all that money creates jobs back here at home as the projects are completed. Those workers become part of our economy and, somewhat ironically, also end up helping pay these taxes.

In summary, the proposed Chatham SPLOST is a way to fund projects we would almost certainly have to fund out of other taxes if SPLOST were not an option. This mechanism allows us to draw in dollars from non-residents while speeding up the timeline of needed upgrades. 

I’m voting yes. If you have a SPLOST on your ballot, hopefully this thought process can help you decide if you also want to support a local sales tax, or if you need to ask your leaders to wait until their list matches real needs in your communities.

About Charlie Harper