Commissioners Approve $200 Million SPLOST Vote

Forsyth County voters will be asked to weigh in on a $200 million special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) during a special election in November.

Commissioners approved an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Cumming Thursday then adopted a resolution calling for the election that is expected to provide funding for a new courthouse and expansion of the county jail.

The vote on both issues was 4-0 as Commissioner Pete Amos announced earlier in the week that he would recuse himself due to a potential conflict of interest.

Under the agreement, the city will receive $12.5 million or 6.5 percent of the proceeds.

Most of the nearly two dozen speakers who addressed the board spoke in favor of the SPLOST.

Former Commissioner Julian Bowen said, "I support the SPLOST. We've got no choice. We desperately need a new jail." But he cautioned commissioners that the sales tax would face strong opposition.

"It's going to be very close," he said. "A lot of groups are going to oppose it. A lot of people in the north will oppose it because they didn't get projects they wanted included."

Bowen said others would oppose it due to the funding provided for Sharon Forks Library, one of the newer libraries in the county.

Representatives of the Forsyth County Tea Party, Forsyth County Democratic Party and Concerned Citizens for Forsyth County have said they will oppose the SPLOST and will work to defeat it.

Tea Party Founder Steve Voshall said, "This is not the time for a county to build a jail." He estimated SPLOST VII would cost taxpayers between $2,100 and $3,100 per household.

Voshall also called on commissioners to conduct a cost efficiency study by a "disinterested, third party."

In other business, commissioners resolved the long simmering Lanier Golf Course issue by approving the rezoning of the front half of the course to a Master Planned Unit with a Conditional Use Permit for a Continuing Care Retirement Community and the back half Residential-2.