Murray County voters will decide in November whether to approve another Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST).
Murray County Sole Commissioner Greg Hogan last week voted to place a TSPLOST referendum on the November general election ballot. He also approved an intergovernmental agreement with the cities of Chatsworth and Eton that will determine how they and the county will divide the money raised by the tax if voters approve it.
A TSPLOST is a 1% tax on most goods sold in the county that can be used for road resurfacing, bridge repair and other transportation projects. The county’s previous TSPLOST, approved by voters in 2020, expired June 30.
County officials expect that tax will have collected about $25.284 million when the county receives the final funds from that tax from the state.
The county paved about 15 miles of roads in 2020. After it began receiving funds from the TSPLOST it paved about 34 miles of roads in 2021 and again in 2022 and 38 miles of roads last year. It has paved about 25 miles so far this year.
The proposed TSPLOST would run from April 2025 to March 2031 and would be expected to raise an estimated $39 million.
While the county used all of its share of the 2020 TSPLOST for paving, Murray County Manager/Financial Officer Tommy Parker said it may use some of the next TSPLOST to buy equipment for maintaining roads, bridges and rights of way.
Hogan and officials from the cities agreed earlier this year to maintain the same distribution of funds from the 2020 TSPLOST for the new TSPLOST, with the county to receive 90% of the sales tax proceeds, Chatsworth 8% and Eton 2%, based on the percentage of total road and street miles in each.