Oconee County voters will be asked on Nov. 3 to approve renewal of the county’s 1 percent Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST) to generate an estimated $72 million, with $17.1 million set aside for property tax relief.
Just more than 13 percent of the expected revenue ($9.4 million) will be divided among the county’s four cities, based on population size, for use for transportation projects inside the cities themselves.
The county plans to spend $36 million from the tax revenue on paving and $9.5 million on intersection improvements.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday (July 28) voted to ask the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration to call the election.
The Elections Board voted on Wednesday (July 29) to place the referendum on the November ballot.
The Board of Commissioners on Tuesday also approved an Intergovernmental Contract with the county’s four cities stipulating how revenue from the tax, should voters approve its renewal, will be allocated.
The commissioners on Tuesday also gave initial approval to a Traffic Calming Policy that spells out options for subdivisions trying to slow traffic on their streets.
The commissioners also held their first public hearing on proposed property tax millage rates for 2026. The rate for the unincorporated parts of the county is lower than the current rate, while the rate for the incorporated parts of the county is the same as this year but is above the rollback rate and thus is labeled a tax increase.
TSPLOST History
Oconee County voters in November of 2022 approved TSPLOST, with 51.3 percent of the voters supporting the tax, after defeating it a year earlier, when only 47.2 percent voted in favor. The tax did not go into effect until April of 2023.
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| Daniell 7/28/2026 |
At the meeting on Tuesday, Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell said the effect of the tax was a reduction of 1 mill in property taxes in the county, the paving of 131 miles of roads, and improvements to “six of our most challenging intersections.”
He listed Snows Mill Road at Lane Creek Road and Union Church Road at High Shoals Road, where roundabouts are completed, and Colham Ferry Road at Astondale Road, Aycock Road/Cole Springs Road at Snows Mill Road, Moores Ford Road at Lane Creek Road, and Cole Springs Road/Clottfelter Road at SR 53, where work is underway or in design.
Paving is averaging 33 miles a year since TSPLOST went into effect, Daniell said, compared with less than 10 miles a year before the sales tax money was available to the county.
Daniell did not mention completion of the multi-use path along Hog Mountain Road from Butler’s Crossing to U.S. 441, which also was financed by TSPLOST.
Future TSPLOST Spending
“A yes vote in November will allow us to do the following,” Daniell said, “which first is to keep the current sales tax rate the same. So there'll be no increase in the sales tax rate.”
“We also will continue to maintain the 1 mill reduction in property taxes,” he said.
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| Ballot Language TSPLOST Referendum |
“We'll be able to continue with roughly 25 to 30 miles of roadway paving each year and also continue to work on our challenging intersections,” he said.
The intersections to be considered for improvements are Burr Harris Road at Hog Mountain Road (SR 53), Hebron Church Road at SR 53, both the north and south intersections of Rocky Branch Road and Malcolm Bridge Road, and Epps Bridge Road at Dowdy Road, Daniell said.
If approved, TSPLOST will run through March of 2034, Daniell said, with collection anticipated at $72 million.
Watkinsville will receive $5.5 million, Bogart $2.2 million, North High Shoals $950,000, and Bishop $568,000, Daniell said.
Of the $62 million the county will receive, $17.1 million will cover the 1 mill property tax reduction, $36 million will go for paving, and $9.5 million will be used for intersection improvements.
No money will be set aside for further expansion of the county’s multi-use path project.
Daniell said after the June 16 Town Hall meeting that the next logical extension of that system is along Daniells Bridge Road from the existing path along Hog Mountain Road to Mars Hill Road, which currently has bike lanes.
That route will be expensive, Daniell said, because of the need for a bridge over Barber Creek.
Traffic Calming Policy
County Administrator Justin Kirouac on Tuesday (July 28) presented the Board with a policy for dealing with traffic complains within subdivisions after residents of Lane Creek Plantation subdivision appeared before the Board on July 7 asking for help to reduce speeding on Land Creek Drive.
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| Center Lane Narrowing Device |
Kirouac identified 13 calming measures the county could use, including speed feedback signs, high visibility crosswalks, center lane narrowing, traffic circles, and textured pavement.
According to the policy Kirouac put before the Board, “Traffic calming devices will only be considered on streets classified as local, residential streets.”
The Board would have the power to “authorize the placement of a traffic calming device and shall have the authority to remove any traffic calming device as seen necessary.”
To have a traffic calming device installed, representatives of at least 75 percent of the lots in the subdivision must sign a petition asking for the device, according to the policy.
The neighborhood will be responsible for the cost of engineering and construction of the device, according to the policy. A special tax district may be created to allow the neighborhood to pay the county for these costs.
The Board put approval of the policy on its consent agenda for its meeting on Aug. 4, meaning it will be approved without further discussion unless a commissioner asked that it be withdrawn from the consent agenda.
Tax Hearing
Daniell began the tax hearing by noting that the tax digest for the incorporated parts of the county increased by $32.8 million from 2025 to 2026, to $424.6 million, with $18.8 million of that growth representing real growth.
The $18.8 million in real growth is what Daniell called “new stuff that's been built in the incorporated areas over the last year.” The remaining $14.0 million is growth due entirely to reassessments of existing properties that had not changed.
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| Lieberman Before Board 7/28/2026 |
The tax digest for the unincorporated parts of the county increased from $3.3 billion in 2025 to $3.5 billion in 2026, Daniell said.
The growth in the unincorporated parts of the county of $198.4 million consists of $175.9 million in real growth, Daniell said, with the remaining $22.5 million in reassessment growth.
Daniell said that the calculated rollback rate provided by Tax Commissioner Jennifer Riddle for the incorporated part of the county it is 4.984, and for the unincorporated parts of the county is 4.157.
“These are the rates that we would have to drop to to recognize only real growth in the digest,” Daniell said. These rates would “generate $824,893 more in taxes in 2026 than in 2025,” he added.
Rather than these rates, the county is proposing a millage rate of 5.154 for the incorporated parts of the county, which is the same as this year, and which is 0.17 mills more than the rollback rate.
For the unincorporated parts of the county, the proposed rate is 4.124, down from 4.184 this year and 0.79 mills less than the rollback rate.
“The recommended tax rates will generate additional property tax over last year of $788,124,” Daniell, or $36,769 less than the rollback rate would produce.
Rahn Lieberman, the only person who spoke at the hearing, said “I just want to make sure I heard the numbers right for the millage rate for unincorporated. It went down from the recommended rate?”
“Yes, sir,” Daniell responded. “We're actually lower than the roll back rate.”
More On Different Rates
Daniell, in an email message on July 24, said “We would prefer to drop both rates to the rollback rate.”
“If we dropped incorporated to rollback we would have to reduce unincorporated to a rate below our budgeted income and pass on a majority of the real growth of the digest,” he added.
Data from Tax Commissioner Riddle show that if the tax digests for the incorporated and unincorporated parts of the county are combined, the county’s total tax digest increased from $3.7 billion in 2025 to $3.9 billion in 2026, or by 4.9 percent.
In 2025, the incorporated parts of the county made up 10.6 percent of the total digest, with the unincorporated parts making up 89.5 percent.
In 2026, the incorporated parts of the county made up 10.8 percent of the total digest, and the unincorporated parts made up 89.2 percent.
Of the growth in the total county digest, the incorporated parts of the county contributed 14.2 percent, with the unincorporated parts contributing 85.8 percent.
Of the growth in the total digest, 84.2 percent is due to real growth, and 15.8 percent is due to reassessment.
Of the real growth, only 9.6 percent was in the incorporated parts of the county, and 90.4 percent was is in the unincorporated parts of the county
Of the reassessment growth, 38.4 percent was in the incorporated parts of the county, and 61.6 percent was in the unincorporated parts of the county.
As a result of these differences, the rollback rate for the incorporated parts of the county was 0.17 mills less than last year’s rate, while the rollback rate for the unincorporated parts of the county was 0.027 mills less.
The tax increase for the incorporated parts of the county, which necessitated the tax hearing, reflects the relative lack of real growth in the digest of the four cities.
Two more hearings are scheduled on the tax increase for the incorporated parts of the county, at 6 p.m. on Aug. 4, 2026 and Aug. 25 at the Oconee County Administration Building, 7635 Macon Highway, north of Watkinsville.
The county’s four cities also impose their own millage rates to cover the costs of city services.
Election Board Meeting
At the Election Board meeting on Wednesday, Board Chair Jay Hanley read aloud the resolution passed by the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday asking that the TSPLOST referendum be placed on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Included was the ballot language voters will see when they cast their ballots, asking them to vote Yes or No on imposition of a “special one percent sales and use tax” that will run for not more than five years “for the raising of an estimated amount of $72,000,000.00 for transportation purposes.”
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| Hanley 7/29/2026 |
The tax will begin on April 1, 2028, if approved by voters.
The last day to register for the election will be Oct. 5.
The Board approved the request without discussion.
Director of Elections and Registration Sharon Gregg reviewed for the Board the legislation passed by the General Assembly in its special session last month establishing an Election Equipment Specification Committee and setting standards for recounts of specified elections.
The legislation “creates an Election Equipment Specifications and Standards Committee,” she said. “This Committee will develop recommendations for Georgia's next statewide voting system.”
“The Committee will make recommendations on equipment specifications, standards, and implementation for the 2028 election cycle,” Gregg said.
Gov. Brian Kemp has appointed the three public members, Gregg said, and the Senate and House leaders have each appointed three members.
The report is due by Jan. 31, 2027, she said.
Video
I attended and video recorded the Board of Commissioners meeting on July 28 and the Election Board meeting on July 29.
The first video below of the Board of Commissioners meeting is on the county YouTube Channel. The audio is better than in my recording.
The second video below of the Election Board meeting is on my Vimeo Channel. The county does not video record Election Board meetings.
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