LOST, SPLOST, ESPLOST, TSPLOST and FLOST 

This is a slight shifting of gears from my normal health and fitness column but since we have the transportation special purpose local option sales tax (TSPLOST) on the ballot here in Peach County, I wanted to share a few things about these sales tax pennies and what it means to the health of our counties where these sales tax pennies come back to. 

The value of good businesses in your area: when there is a healthy flow of traffic through your county and there are good businesses along these routes, chances are high that a lot of your county and city’s bills are being paid by people simply traveling through that had a reason to stop and shop! Part of the value in building state and local government reliance on sales tax, is it increases their desire to create a business-friendly environment for their businesses (that collect sales tax).      

LOST, SPLOST, ESPLOST, TSPLOST and FLOST: these are pennies (added to the state’s base 4 cent) sales that come back to your local community. 

LOST (local option sales tax) is the local option sales tax penny that helps rollback property taxes (this goes directly toward reducing your property tax).

SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax) is a special purpose sales tax penny that pays for special projects in your county or municipality and keeps it off your tax bill.

ESPLOST (education special purpose local option sales tax) is for special purpose projects for our education system within your county and keeps it off your tax bill.

TSPLOST (transportation special purpose sales tax) is for specific road and infrastructure projects. There is a provision made on this tax that lets a local government create a bond on projected revenue and go ahead and get started on the road projects instead of having to wait until the money is collected. 

FLOST (floating local option sales tax) is an additional penny that was allowed by the state to be collected for offsetting property taxes. Its origin was from the homestead protection bill (HB 581), this penny could go much further if it was applied in full force to homestead millage rollback, before any general property millage rate rollback. It would then work much like a local homestead option sales tax (LHOST).  

Online orders: smaller less populated counties (such as Peach, Macon, Taylor and Crawford) now have an advantage when their residents shop online for products that they normally had to go to a competing county or city to shop at or to get a product at. Sales tax law has been shaped now so that the local portion of the sales tax (LOST, SPLOST, ESPLOST, TSPLOST and FLOST) goes back to the county and municipality that an order originated from or was delivered to. Georgia also passed the 3^rd party marketplace facilitator law to keep large platforms for retailers such as Amazon and EBAY from skirting around sales tax (this gave online stores an unfair advantage over local stores).  

Collection and distribution is county wide: it doesn’t matter where the retail collection happens, it is distributed county wide. Example: the City of Fort Valley can benefit from a build-up of retail along the Peach County portion of I-75.   

I’m a libertarian at heart, so anytime there is extra taxation my guard goes up, especially with government’s appetite to do big things but with ever increases taxation on the people they are supposed to be serving. However, whether its highways, public safety, court system, recreation, schools etc.), payment for these costs must come from somewhere. And a consumption tax, seems a fair way for everyone to participate in the costs of keeping their communities’ services and infrastructure intact. 

Transparency of local taxes: whether current or past projects, there should be a magnifying glass over county and cities’ spending of these special purpose local option pennies and make sure it is being spent exactly as your vote chose for it to be spent. What it was (or will be) spent on should be readily available, -as well as the status of the project(s) the money was tagged for.

The penny is small, but can do really good things for your community!