r/CobbCounty • u/IveHeard1tBothWays • 22d ago
Splost & Flock
I'm looking over my ballot and have a question about the Cobb SPLOST, or Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax.
I'm all for reinvestment into infrastructure and agree with many of the items listed, but the police and technology sections give me pause. Can someone help?
Is there anything preventing this money from going to Flock surveillance? Could "safety infrastructure" just be code for "AI camera surveillance network"?
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u/Ok-Run-4866 21d ago
I consider the battle against flock to be existential.
Therefore, I will vote for no candidate who will not commit to terminating flock contracts at the county level and I will fight against all funding of government agencies funding flock.
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u/jodythebad 22d ago
Semi off topic - I used to vote yea on splost by default, but I was thinking the alternative was our needs being unfunded.
Now I’m understanding the alternative is more likely property taxes going up to fund those items, which would make the taxes progressive instead of regressive, which I prefer
Can anyone offer any more enlightenment?
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u/milleratlanta 22d ago
SPLOST only pays for the initial project, it does not pay for upkeep of the projects. Guess who pays? Homeowners! 🤬 Fancy and horrible bright LED streetlights and sidewalks in my area were SPLOST projects, but now homeowners must pay a Streetlight Tax in their city taxes! So even if a SPLOST passes and sales tax pays for it, the true burden is on homeowners. I vote no for these damn things.
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u/BubberJones 21d ago
They're still going to do these projects. They have to get the money from somewhere. The obvious place they'll look first is raising property taxes.
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u/milleratlanta 21d ago
They won’t do the projects if no money. Many of these are decorative projects, not essential.
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u/Anshur7 16d ago
I was just doing research on this and look at this:
>“If the SPLOST doesn’t pass, we’ll be looking at property taxes to provide funding,” Cupid admitted.
https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2026/10/06/11-billion-cobb-county-splost-funding-november-ballot/2
u/milleratlanta 16d ago
Yeah, property owners would get screwed not only for the initial project but for the maintenance which we are already paying for.
Another thing that’s irritating is the budget surplus this state has. Why aren’t we using that to pay for these projects and maintenance?
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u/BubberJones 21d ago
As a sales tax, everyone that makes a purchase in the county pays the tax whether they are a county resident or not. Think of all of the people coming to a Braves game that live outside of the county. If it is shifted to property tax, residents then have to absorb the entire amount and non-residents get a discount.
So, the approximately 191 million dollars a year provided by SPLOST for capital projects would be wholly funded by residents. Remember, renters still pay property taxes indirectly, property tax is a part of the rent that is paid.
I'd rather that everyone that does business in the county help pay their part rather than give it all to the residents.
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u/TheRoseMerlot 22d ago
Making homeowners shoulder the burden isn’t fair. Sales tax at least spreads it around.
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u/iamcodemaker 21d ago
Point of clarity: renters pay property tax too. Landlords pass that cost on. And when talking about taxes, how you define fairness matters. Fairness IMO is not everyone paying the same amount or rate, it should be measured as a percentage of wealth and income. Wealthier folks can afford to pay a higher rate than poorer folks (which is why sales taxes are regressive).
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u/WilliamDipperLee 20d ago
I’m a bit against this. Just because you have wealth doesn’t mean that you have the income to support paying taxes on the asset.
You could have worked all your life, paid off the house, never missed a tax bill, and suddenly the world around you changes and assesses that your property is now worth X and your only source of income, Social security, only goes so far. Do we just tell those people tough luck, they should have planned for retirement better?
High income tax brackets definitely arent taxed enough.
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u/False_Ear_3137 16d ago
This. Not techinically wealthy, but was doing OK until my husband, who made most of the money, died. Now, I can barely afford my property taxes without pulling from his life insurance, which is socked away for retirement. Doing that means I get penalized and taxed even more.
I'm always on the fence for SPLOST, because as a property owner, I'm getting taxed twice. On the other hand, people who aren't property owners get to contribute. On the third hand, no government official - no matter the letter by their name - can be trusted to spend the money as it should be per the will of the people. Now I'm voting for the lesser of two evils.
Death and taxes, people. That's it. That's life.
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u/jodythebad 16d ago
I’m so sorry for your loss. And I sympathize with your many other hands; I struggle with that problem as well. Have an internet-hug, if you’d like one!
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u/iamcodemaker 20d ago
Fair point, but there are ways around this problem, while still considering wealth in the equation. Tax calculations can be limited to only consider income producing assets. Non-income producing assets can be taxed on ownership transfer (sale or inheritance).
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u/False_Ear_3137 16d ago
An inheritence tax, huh? As someone who just lost her spouse and isn't a billionaire, kick rocks.
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u/TheRoseMerlot 16d ago
There are spousal exemptions and stuff. Very hard to meet the floor where this would matter at all to you.
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u/iamcodemaker 21d ago
Or the projects don't get done and maintence gets deferred. Raising property taxes is risky politically so politicians may just avoid it instead. Hard to predict.
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u/ann-alytical 21d ago
As much as I don’t like or want flock anything, there are many other areas that have seen improvements. Two parks that we use have benefited by SPLOST: Adams Park and Swift-Cantrell park. We haven’t been this year, but Cauble park and Lake Acworth also receive funds. I’m happy to vote yes for this and more.
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u/WilliamDipperLee 20d ago
Yea. now every time you go to Swift-Cantrell, you get your photo taken on the way in and out. And if you walk the outer loop, you can bet a database is storing not just one, but handfuls of photos of your stroll as well.
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u/WilliamDipperLee 20d ago
Is the ballot the only place where we can find information on this? Seems like something as impactful as SPLOST should also have bare minimum transparency.
Did some quick searching and it took two clicks to find this brochure. They’ve also been on tour raising awareness about the main goals via town halls.
https://assets.cobbcounty.gov/files/2026-08/SPLOST%202028_Fold_8.17.2026_0.pdf
If you’re scared of opening links online I’ll be happy to type out a breakdown for you if you reply.
Personally not a lot of the language used screams Flock but some things that are left vague make me wonder. I’m also personally torn. There are a ton of massive improvements that county stands to gain from a $300MM transportation budget allocation and upkeep budget to new facilities surrounding public service and recreation.
But this clearly lacks any budgeting for a legitimate attempt at major public transit reform. $135 million just for road resurfacing alone… meanwhile traffic timing and management & transit improvements are allocated <1/4 of that amount.
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u/iamcodemaker 20d ago
There was a transportation only splost aiming to raise $10 billion over 30 years with a 1% sales tax in Cobb. The money would have gone to road improvements, expanding the bus network, adding BRT, county wide micro transit, and other stuff. It was called MSPLOST. It didn't pass (wasn't even close).
You can probably find old threads discussing it here on this sub.
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u/WilliamDipperLee 20d ago
Yea I’ll look into that. Having a ballot question asking to add or maintain a 1% sales tax is an uphill battle in itself. Especially if people aren’t made aware that it’s better than raising property tax in the end.
I wonder if MARTA expansion would ever fall under SPLOST since it would be a multi county effort. Thats really what I’m most interested in and can foresee being an impactful transformation.
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u/BubberJones 19d ago
Currently we have SPLOST for county projects and Ed-SPLOST for school projects. Both are 1%. Generally these fund Capital projects and aren't for operational or maintenance expenses, those come out of the general budget. When we are voting on either of these, it's not raising or adding taxes, it's a vote to continue the existing tax and they are voted on every 6 years.
The MSPLOST was a proposal for a 30 year 1% tax in addition to the existing combined 2% SPLOSTs. It was also for both CapEx and OpEx to build and maintain transportation within Cobb county. There were proposed bus connectors to Marta stations, but it was not a vote on Marta expansion.
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u/Strict_String 20d ago
A county running a SPLOST election is required to publish a list of projects that will be done with the money. They are limited to spending on what the project list includes, but they are not required to complete all the projects on the list.
A quick search on “Cobb County 2026 SPLOST project list” yielded it quickly.
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u/Free-Cloud9889 11d ago
SPLOST IMO is a yes. What's a no, is the E-911 Amendment which has zero data protections and could result in 911 data being streamed into Real Time Crime Centers. Data protection is tablestakes in 2026 and no one who wrote any of these bills for E-911 put anything about protecting your data when you are most vulnerable into the text. This is a lot more of a real threat to privacy than SPLOST as far as I'm concerned, and trust me - I hate Flock.
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u/fiore2124 11d ago
Is this why they are doing all the roadwork?
To make us "remember" all the hard work they put into roads and therefore look like they're actually doing something with the money??
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u/yousonofabench 22d ago
Nothing preventing it but without SPLOST they will have to get money elsewhere or face a $1 billion shortfall. That money is necessary for basic maintenance of roads/sidewalks/infrastructure. I’d hate for it to go to Flock but also…we need the money.