DeKalb County is one of the largest counties in the State of Georgia, with 740,000 residents calling the area home. Those residents travel hundreds of thousands of miles on DeKalb streets every day, walk millions of steps on DeKalb sidewalks, and take advantage of all that DeKalb’s infrastructure has to offer. Indeed, the robust network that connects the county together is a large part of why economic and population growth remains strong there.
However, those streets are getting bumpier every day. The sidewalks are cracking to their breaking point. The infrastructure that all the county’s residents rely on are slowly falling into disrepair due to a lack of investment into their maintenance and improvement.
CEO Michael Thurmond, the DeKalb Board of Commissioners, and local city leaders have taken notice. They are currently discussing a special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST), which would run for five to six years and raise over $450 million over that period for infrastructure improvements through an additional penny sales tax. A SPLOST is the simplest, most effective, and most efficient way to raise the necessary funds to keep DeKalb’s infrastructure strong.
This is a discussion which has been occurring for a long time, but leaders must act quickly to get the SPLOST in front of voters this November. September 8th is the deadline for city and county officials to come together and find a compromise on how long to raise the money and how it will be spent. If they do not come to an agreement within the next three days, then it will be months before residents have an opportunity to vote on the SPLOST.
Those leaders have a responsibility to the people they represent to fix the roads, bridges, sidewalks, and parks on which residents rely. CEO Thurmond came into office eight months ago with a mandate from the voters to move DeKalb forward by correcting the ills that have plagued the county for so long. He has been an able shepherd as the county has dealt with the water billing crisis and sewer repair issues, and now is the time for his colleagues to come together and get the SPLOST on the ballot.
DeKalb has the potential to be an even greater economic driver for the state and an even better home for the families that live there. A SPLOST is the next step in making those brighter futures a reality.
Tharon Johnson is a consultant with Paramount Consulting Group and a Democrat strategist.
