Polk County Commissioners voted on two items on Tuesday evening to go forward with getting an extension of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) on the ballot this coming November.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve an intergovernmental agreement and a resolution calling for a special election for the purpose of the SPLOST going onto the November ballot without issue.

They are the first municipality in the county to take up the resolution and intergovernmental agreement, with the cities of Cedartown, Rockmart and Aragon still to decide the matter as well.

Votes will likely be coming up this coming Monday, May 8 for the Cedartown City Commission, and at least a discussion from the Rockmart City Commission on Tuesday, May 9. Aragon will get to vote on the measure later in the month when City Council meets on May 18.

The two items approved by the commission allow for the county and cities to come together on how much will be collected and the percentage of the funds that will go to the County and Cities individually. The $64 million sought to be collected started in 2026 will pay for a variety of items, but among the major projects being sought in this go-round of the penny sales tax will be dealing with the need for increased courthouse space for the County Government’s portion.

Other projects – everything from park improvements, new vehicles, road paving to infrastructure, economic development and more – are part of this round of funding requests going to voters if all the municipalities agree to move forward.

SPLOST was approved most recently in 2019 for the 2020 SPLOST package, now three years into its collections. Local officials in a previous meeting noted they sought to go forward with approving an extension to SPLOST so if the measure failed for this upcoming round of votes in November during local elections, there will still be time in either or both 2024 and 2025 to pass a SPLOST extension before it expires in 2026.