Local Ballot Questions and Results

The following is a list of local ballot questions and results for Columbus-Muscogee County.

  1. Charter Review Commission
  2. SPLOSTs
    1. General SPLOSTs
    2. Educations SPLOSTs
    3. Transportation SPLOSTs
  3. Other Ballot Questions
  4. Other Advisory Questions

Charter Review Commission

  • November 2012: A referendum was held on the general election to approve several changes to the Columbus City Charter recommended by the Charter Review Commission (source):
    • Article I and IV
      • Sec. 1-101. Form of Government- Accountable to the Mayor except as otherwise provided in this Charter, by Georgia Law or by Rules of the State Bar of Georgia. Those persons who are deemed to be City Officers are set forth in Sec. 4-300 of this Charter; as amended. (City Officers would be as follows: City Manager, City Attorney, Police Chief, Fire Chief and the Warden)
      • Sec. 4-311. Residence and Compensation. – The City Attorney need not be a resident of Columbus, Georgia at the time of his or her appointment, but must become a resident of Columbus, Georgia within ninety (90) days thereafter and maintain such residency during his or her term of office. (The current Charter reads that the City Attorney shall be a resident of the consolidated government.)
      • Subcharter 4-335. Dismissal of City Officer. – The Mayor may remove, dismiss and discharge any City Officer. Such dismissal shall be effective immediately subject to the affected City Officer’s right to appeal such action by the Mayor as provided in Sec. 4-336 of this subchapter. (This section offers a third means for the dismissal of City Officers.)
    • Article III
      • Sec. 3-103. Organization of the Council; officers; rules; quorum; meetings; and employees.- The rules of the Council shall provide for regular meetings which shall be held at least twice in each month. (The current Charter reads “The rules of the Council shall provide for regular meetings which shall be held at least once in every week”.)
    • Article VI
      • Sec. 6-102. Reapportionment of council districts- The final grand jury of each decennial year shall nominate four (4) registered voters from each of the eight (8) council districts as nominees to comprise a districting commission…. (The current Charter reads “The grand jury shall, after each official United States decennial census, nominate four (4) qualified voters…”.)
    • Article VIII
      • Sec. 8-203. Conflict of laws.- To the extent permitted by state law, if a law applicable to municipalities and the same or another law applicable to counties are in conflict, the Columbus Council shall have the power to choose the law that most benefits the Columbus Consolidated Government. (This would strike out the current language “If a law applicable to municipalities and the same or another law applicable to counties are in conflict, the urban services district shall be considered a municipality and the general services district shall be considered a county.”
    • Appendix Two
      • 6 – Ineligibility of elected officials.- …..No Former mayor or former councilor shall hold any compensated appointive office in the consolidated government until one (1) year after the expiration of the term for which he or she was elected. (This would add no former mayor where it currently reads “No former councilor shall hold……”
      • 7- Political activities of certain officers and employees.- No appointive officer or employee of the consolidated government shall continue in such employment upon qualifying as a candidate for nomination or election to any public office in Muscogee County,…… or take part in the management of the affairs of any political party or in any political campaign in Muscogee County,….. (This would add “in Muscogee County” to allow employees of the consolidated government the opportunity to run for office in some other county for which they reside.)

Other separate changes recommended by the Charter Review Commission were approved in 2013 through House Bills 415, 417 (both of which corrected grammatical and clerical errors), elimination of dissolved municipalities) and 416 (changing the powers of the personnel review board) from the General Assembly without referendum.

A proposed change to Article VII was the most controversial of the changes in the eyes of council, with the city attorney being directed to seek the opinion of the State Attorney General. It stated:

Sec. 7-100(2).- to assess and collect a service fee in an amount not to exceed $500.00 on each property subject to taxation by the consolidated government to offset a portion of the cost of providing police and fire services under such rules and regulations as prescrived by ordinance provided that each assessment shall be reduced by amount of ad valorem taxes paid for the same calendar year in which the fee is assessed on the same property. (This is an addition to the current Section.)

The Charter Review Commission voted on April 12, 2012 to remove this revision from their proposed changes.

  • Results
    • Articles I, IV and VIII: 61.36% YES, 38.64% NO
    • Article III: 75.74% YES, 24.26% NO
    • Article VI: 64.78% YES, 35.22% NO
    • Article VIII: 64.17% YES, 35.83% NO
    • Appendix Two, Section 6: 69.40% YES, 30.60% NO
    • Appendix Two, Section 7: 59.97% YES, 40.03% NO

Source: https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/Muscogee/42384/112419/en/summary.html

SPLOSTs

Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (or SPLOST) raises the sales tax in the city, usually by 1%, in order to raise funding for the Capital Investment Projects (CIP) fund, with certain portions of the fund earmarked for certain projects. SPLOSTs, while regressive like most sales taxes, have largely been used in Columbus largely for improvements to educational and school athletics facilities, with a few instances for non-educational purposes. SPLOSTs may be levied by the City Council, the School Board (in which they’re called an Education SPLOST or E-SPLOST), by the state government through the River Valley Regional Commission for multi-county transportation purposes (hence Transportation SPLOSTS or TSPLOST 1), or by the city for transportation purposes (hence TSPLOST 2).

General SPLOSTs

  • 1993: This general SPLOST targeted $169,418,600 in funding for the Capital Improvement Program. Excess proceeds from the 1993 SPLOST in the amount of $14,709,308 were later dedicated in 2008 to paying off debts for the city.
  • 1999: A general, ten-year SPLOST was passed. The SPLOST targeted “approximately $255,000,000 of capital projects to be used for public safety; economic development; recreation; transportation; a government service center; storm water drainage improvements and flood abatement; road, street, and bridge construction/repair; a county library; and, governmental, proprietary, and administrative purposes of the SPLOST,” according to the Columbus Fiscal Year 2012 Capital Improvement Program Budget. The collection ended in 2010. Several projects were built, including the Animal Shelter, Lake Oliver Marina, Oxbow Meadows, and the Rails to Trails project, as well as the Citizen Service Center and the Columbus Public Library which were built on the site of the former Columbus Square Mall on land between Macon Road, Rigdon Rd and Boxwood Blvd.
  • 2008: Another general SPLOST was passed. 70% was dedicated to Public Safety purposes, including the hiring of “100 police officers to the current 388; adding new patrol zones; building police precincts and replacing fire stations; building a jail addition; hiring sheriff’s deputies and correctional officers; and annually paying every city law enforcement officer a $3,000 supplement,” according to the 2012 CIP budget. The remaining thirty percent was “dedicated toward roads, bridges and other much needed infrastructure projects.”
  • November 2, 2021: A general SPLOST is on the ballot, with a “Yes” vote raising the current sales tax in Columbus from 8% to 9% for nine months, starting in April 2022. The goal is to raise $400 million, $200 million of which will go to rebuilding or renovating the existing, deteriorating Government Center and to build a new Judicial Center, with the other $200 million to go to “Road, Street, and Bridge Improvements; Trials and Sidewalks; Storm Water Projects; Parks and Recreation Projects; Golf Facilities; Public Safety; General Government Vehicles and Equipment; Technology Enhancements; Columbus Ironworks Convention and Trade Center Improvements; Columbus Civic Center; and Economic Development (collectively, the “Capital Projects”)”.

Education SPLOSTs (E-SPLOST)

  • 1997: This E-SPLOST was passed with 79% of the vote which was targeted to fund the construction of a new high school (Northside), buy new air conditioners and fund maintenance for several schools, among other projects. However, a sluggish economy at the time meant that only $140 million was collected in that five-year period, resulting in some projects, such as the construction of North Columbus Elementary and Veterans Memorial Middle, being postponed to the next SPLOST.
  • 2003: This E-SPLOST was passed by only 208 votes, largely due to the previous E-SPLOST falling below its target. This time, the target of $148 million was met, with over $180 million in revenue being generated. Money was raised for a rebuilt Rigdon Road Elementary School, a new elementary school (Eagle Ridge Academy) and a rebuilt Mildred L. Terry Public Library, as well as a controversial new headquarters for the MCSD on Macon Road.
  • 2009: Buoyed by the 2003 result, the MCSD placed another E-SPLOST on the ballot, receiving 57% of the vote in support. Funding from this E-SPLOST went to the construction of a rebuilt Carver High School, a new middle school (Aaron Cohn) and a new elementary school (Dorothy Height). However, with a loftier $223 million target, this SPLOST faced a similar fate as the 1997 E-SPLOST, falling short by about $40 million due to the Great Recession. As a result, $17.7 million worth of SPLOST projects were eliminated. Another $19.5 million in projects were deferred to the 2015 E-SPLOST, including the Rainey-McCullers School for the Arts, a districtwide gym at Fort Middle, various other athletics facilities, furniture and equipment.
  • March 2015: A Columbus E-SPLOST was passed in March 2015 54-46 percent (results), with the intent to raise funding starting on July 1, 2015 and for the next five years or until $192,185,000 is collected for 24 capital projects for the Muscogee County School District. By 2018, The Ledger-Enquirer wrote that only 88% of targeted funding had been raised as of December 2017. An athletics complex for multiple sports and systemwide use next to the rebuilt Spencer High School ended up being delayed to the 2020 E-SPLOST. However, the collected money was used in 2018 to rebuild and relocate Spencer High School from the problematic lakebed soil off of Victory Drive to off of Fort Benning Road, marking the 4th iteration of the school since it was first established in 1930. The Rainey-McCullers School for the Arts, which also collected funding from 2003, 2009 and 2015, opened in August 2017, as did a gym for districtwide use at Fort Middle in September.
  • June 2020: The E-SPLOST was renewed with 69% of the vote. The five-year E-SPLOST is targeted to raise $189 million to fund 22 projects, including the consolidation of Dawson and St. Mary’s Road Elementary Schools into a larger school building, as well as the multi-sport, all-district athletics complex which had been deferred from the 2015 E-SPLOST, a complete renovation of Arnold Middle, and various improvements to technology and infrastructure throughout the district.

Transportation SPLOSTs (T-SPLOST)

  • 2012: A Transportation SPLOST (or T-SPLOST) under the Georgia Transportation Investment Act of 2010 was approved by voters in three regions: Central Savannah (Region 7), Heart of Georgia (Region 9), and River Valley (Region 8), of which Columbus-Muscogee is a part. Columbus-Muscogee residents passed the T-SPLOST by a slim 53% to 47%. Beginning on January 1, 2013, the T-SPLOST would collect a 1% sales tax across each of the three regions (joined later by Southern Georgia region (Region 11) on October 1, 2018) to fund transportation projects. By 2019, $300 million in transportation funding had been raised across the region, including $276.7 million for Columbus-Muscogee.

Other Local Ballot Questions

  • July 2006: ????: 65.67% YES, 34.33% NO
  • November 2012: Allowing for Alcohol Sales on Sundays: 57.92% YES, 42.08% NO
  • November 2014: allow the city government to exercise redevelopment powers to create Tax Allocation Districts: 59.42% YES, 40.58% NO
  • November 2016: Homestead Exemption Reform (aka Thawing the Tax Freeze): 37.75% YES, 62.25% NO
  • November 2018: Allowing establishments to start serving alcohol at 11 a.m. on Sundays instead of 12:30 p.m.: 66.03% YES, 33.97% NO

Local Advisory Questions

  • May 2018:
    • Republican 1 (“Should Casinos be allowed in Muscogee County?”): 41.25% YES, 58.75% NO
    • Republican 2 (“Should questions concerning taxes, SPLOST, tax freeze, or other taxes, only be on the ballot in November or general elections?”): 73.16% YES, 26.84% NO