Dear Editor,

During the 2024 legislative session, the Georgia General Assembly passed House Bill 581, creating an important opportunity for property tax relief right here in Liberty County. The Floating Local Option Sales Tax, or FLOST, is a new sales tax designed to directly reduce property taxes for local homeowners.

Here’s how it works: Liberty County would collect a one-cent sales tax, and all of the revenue would go toward lowering local millage rates. In other words, instead of property owners shouldering the full burden of rising costs, FLOST allows us to spread that responsibility by collecting from anyone who shops in our community. Given Liberty County’s high number of daytime visitors, this is a smart way to capture additional revenue from travelers passing through as well.

In the last five years, some local homeowners have seen property taxes increase by as much as $3,000, and those numbers will only continue to rise as our population grows. Other counties, like Thomas County, have seen FLOST reduce property taxes by as much as 50% for some residents.

Many residents also question the purpose of TSPLOST, the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, which is a special purpose local option sales tax used to fund capital outlay projects for transportation purposes only. The State of Georgia took the gasoline sales tax and changed it to an excise tax a few years ago.

That meant that Liberty County and its municipalities lost all sales tax for gasoline and that took a big chunk out of the local budgets. In the meantime, our county continues to grow as well as our needs for road improvements to manage and sustain our increased traffic, especially on our Highway 84 corridor.

Funds can only be spent for transportation purposes which are generally defined by Georgia law as improvements related to roads, bridges, sidewalks, bicycle paths, public transit, rails, airports, buses, seaports and all accompanying infrastructure.

FLOST and TSPLOST will be on the ballot for a community vote on Election Day - November 4, 2025. Early voting begins in mid-October. We encourage you to contact us if you have additional questions.

Sincerely,

Donald Lovette, Chairman, Liberty County Board of Commissioners