A Mobility Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (MSPLOST) referendum will be presented to voters on the November 2024 ballot in Cobb County. It will be Cobb’s first transit-related referendum since 1967.
On December 12th, 2023, the MSPLOST’s Program of Projects was approved by the Cobb Board of Commissioners and, per the HB930 process, a number of steps between the County, cities, and Atlanta-region Transit Link Authority (ATL) took place between February and June of 2024. These steps are listed in the timeline at the bottom of this page. On June 6th, 2024, the ATL board unanimously approved Cobb’s Project List for referendum consideration by the Cobb County Board of Commissioners. On Tuesday, June 11th, 2024, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve the Mobility SPLOST referendum for the November 2024 ballot.
The ballot language will be as follows: “Shall a special 1 percent sales and use tax be imposed in the special district consisting of Cobb County for a period of time not to exceed thirty years to raise funds for transit and transit-supportive projects as defined in O.C.G.A. § 48-8-269.40, inclusive of the approved project list within the Atlanta-Region Transit Link Authority Regional Transit Plan (ARTP)? If the imposition of the tax is approved by the voters, such a vote shall constitute approval of the issuance of general obligation debt of Cobb County in a principal amount not to exceed $950,000,000 for the above purpose.”
If approved by voters, the one penny sales tax would collect a projected $10.87 billion over thirty years to fund transit-related projects. High capacity transit (BRT, ART) and microtransit would be the focus. According to the Program of Projects Overview, this expansion will provide the following transportation improvements to Cobb County: