The Association of County Commissioners of Georgia will award Sen. Shelly Echols of District 49 and Rep. Lee Hawkins of District 27 for their work to pass House Bill 946 and Senate Bill 383 during the 2024 legislative session.
They will be honored at the Hall County Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Thursday, Jul. 11.
“We are excited to be a part of recognizing the work that Senator Echols and Representative Hawkins did to ensure these important legislative changes were made to Transportation SPLOST for Hall County and for Georgia as a whole,” Hall County Board of Commissioners Chairman Richard Higgins said. “We want to thank them both for their leadership and dedicated service to the public.”
The bills were introduced after negotiations on a new Transportation Special Local Option Sales Tax ballot item broke down between Hall County and the cities of Buford and Rest Haven.
The legislation requires only municipalities representing more than 50% of a county’s municipal population to sign an Intergovernmental Agreement to levy the tax at a full penny.
“The passing of this bill was an important step towards improving transportation in Hall County, and we are excited to pursue a single county Transportation SPLOST under this new law,” Hall County Administrator Zach Propes said.
On June 27, several municipalities in Hall County gathered at the Hall County Government Center to sign the 2024 TSPLOST IGA, including Buford and Rest Haven.
“The collaboration between the municipalities ensures that the citizens of Hall County will have a voice and fair chance to vote on whether or not they want dedicated transportation funding,” Chairman Higgins said.
The Board of Commissioners will reportedly vote on a resolution to include the TSPLOST question on the Nov. 5 ballot for consideration by Hall County voters.
