TITLE 48 REVENUE AND TAXATION

Section 8. Sales and Use Taxes, 48-8-1 through 48-8-278.

ARTICLE 5 SPECIAL DISTRICT TRANSPORTATION SALES AND USE TAX (TSPLOST)

48-8-244. Election; ballot.

1. Simultaneously with the director's delivery of the approved investment list in accordance with subsection (b) of Code Section 48-8-243, the roundtable shall deliver a notice to the election superintendents of each county within the respective special districts. Upon receipt of the notice, the election superintendents shall issue the call for an election for the purpose of submitting the question of the imposition of the tax to the voters within each special district. The election superintendents shall issue the call and shall conduct the election in the manner authorized under Code Section 21-2-540. The first election shall be held on the date of the general state-wide primary in 2012. The election superintendents shall cause the date and purpose of the election to be published once a week for four weeks immediately preceding the date of the election in the official organs of their respective counties.

(b) The ballot submitting the question of the levy of the special district transportation tax authorized by this article to the voters within each special district shall have written or printed thereon the following:

"( ) YES Shall ________ County's transportation system and the transportation network in this region and the state be improved by providing for a 1 percent ( ) NO special district transportation sales and use tax for the purpose of transportation projects and programs for a period of ten years?"

All persons desiring to vote in favor of levying the tax shall vote "Yes" and all persons opposed to levying the tax shall vote "No." If more than one-half of the votes cast throughout the entire special district are in favor of levying the tax, then the tax shall be levied as provided in this article; otherwise the tax shall not be levied and the question of levying the tax shall not again be submitted to the voters of the special district until after 24 months immediately following the month in which the election was held. Each election superintendent shall hold and conduct the election under the same rules and regulations as govern special elections. Each election superintendent shall canvass the returns from his or her county, declare the result of the election in that county, and certify the result to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State shall compile the results from each county in the special district, declare the result of the election in the special district, and certify the result to the governing authority of each local government and MPO within the special district and the state revenue commissioner. The expense of the election in each county within each special district shall be paid from funds of each county.

In the event a special district sales and use tax election is held and the voters in a special district do not approve the levy of the special district transportation sales and use tax, the local governments in such special district shall be required to provide a 30 percent match for any local maintenance and improvement grants by the Department of Transportation for transportation projects and programs for at least 24 months and until such time as a special district sales and use tax is approved. In the event the voters in a special district approve the levy of the special district transportation sales and use tax, the local governments in such special district shall be required to provide a 10 percent match for any local maintenance and improvement grants by the Department of Transportation for transportation projects and programs for the duration of the levy of the special district transportation sales and use tax.

(Code 1981, §48-8-244, enacted by Ga. L. 2010, p. 778, § 6/HB 277; Ga. L. 2017, p. 774, § 48/HB 323.)

The 2017 amendment, effective May 9, 2017, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, revised punctuation in subsection (b).