Atlanta voters approved a 1 cent sales tax extension for water and sewer infrastructure projects.
About 74 percent of the 94,854 who cast votes on the sales tax favored the extension, according to unofficial totals reported on the Georgia Secretary of State’s election website.
“I am very pleased that the voters of the city of Atlanta today approved the reauthorization of the Municipal Option Sales Tax (MOST) for another four years,” Mayor Kasim Reed said in a statement released by the city.
“This ‘yes’ vote will ensure dedicated funding to maintain the city’s critical water and sewer infrastructure. I am grateful that the residents of our city have once again chosen to protect Atlanta’s future.”
The municipal option sales tax (MOST) money is used to upgrade the city’s water and sewer infrastructure. If it had not passed, Reed said, residents and businesses could have seen an increase in their water and sewer bills by as much as 30 percent to cover needed projects.
The city says money collected from the MOST will go toward upgrades to reduce the number of sewer spills, rain-induced overflows into rivers and streams and help upgrade the two-acre stormwater detention pond in the Old Fourth Ward and the Peachtree Creek Basin Storage Tank and Pump Station project.
