Laurens voters to decide on new sales tax

Local officials have long touted Dublin-Laurens County’s status as a hub for retail, healthcare and other services, as well as our centralized location along I-16 making us the perfect place for weary travelers to make a pitstop. This, coupled with growing interest in Dublin as a top spot for youth sports, especially baseball, means a lot of people are visiting the area. 

This high volume of visitors makes sales tax collections across Laurens County a lucrative endeavor. Shoppers currently pay 8 percent in sales tax. Half goes to the state while the rest, at 1 percent each, goes to voter approved special purposes, such as funding transportation infrastructure initiatives and school capital improvement projects. Local officials are now asking voters to consider an additional 1 percent sales tax aimed at lowering property tax rates across the county and its seven municipalities. 

Laurens County is one of the latest Georgia counties to ask voters for the new Floating Local Option Sales Tax – a penny tax on purchases authorized by Georgia HB 581, which went into effect in 2025. Money collected through the tax would go directly toward lowering area property taxes for homeowners, businesses and even farms. 

“FLOST can only be used to lower property taxes,” said state Rep. Matt Hatchett. “Based on the number of people who come into Laurens County it’s a win. It’s a win for any county.”  

State lawmakers have made property tax relief a priority in recent years, working to limit how much local governments can increase property values without dampening tax digest growth. HB 581 attempts to do just that, limiting property evaluations to no more than the rate of inflation and allowing for the sales tax to make up for potential losses in revenue. Each dollar collected through the new tax, however, must be met with a reduction in property tax collections. 

The downside to this method, though, is that the law does not include the school portion of property taxes, the heftier portion of property owners’ tax bill. 

FLOST referendums are proving successful across the state. Last year 34 Georgia counties approved the collection of the new sales tax.  

More counties held referendums in May. 

Nearby Washington County was one of the first areas to adopt the FLOST. That county’s five-year sales tax went into effect on July 1, 2025 and is expected to bring in about $4.6 million. 

If allowed, a local FLOST is expected to raise $13.5 million to be distributed between the Laurens County, Dublin, East Dublin, Dudley, Dexter, Cadwell, Rentz and Montrose governments. Dublin Mayor Joshua Kight said the new revenue stream would cut county taxes by 50 percent or more and likely eliminate city property taxes, while forcing visitors to the area to share the tax burden.

“Thousands of people come into Dublin-Laurens from outside the county every day,” Kight said. “These visitors use our roads, emergency responses and other services – but they don’t own property here and they don’t pay property taxes. So this sales tax would get visitors to pay their fair share of these costs. And for local residents, the sales tax reduces, dollar-for-dollar, their property taxes.”

With a state enforced 9 percent cap on sales tax collections, the FLOST will be the final such tax that can be imposed locally.

Since the FLOST benefits business and industrial properties as well as homes, the measure could come with a second benefit – a draw for potential investors. 

Mitch Griggs, president of the Dublin-Laurens County Development Authority, said lower millage rates could be used to spur economic growth. 

“Businesses are just like people. They want to pay less taxes,” he said. “Lowering the millage rate in one way or the other is a good thing from an economic development standpoint. [FLOST] is an exciting prospect and an interesting tool, but it’s up to the voters to decide.”  

The existing sales taxes prove to be a steady stream of revenue. Shoppers currently fund a Local Option Sales Tax (LOST), to fund general operations; a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), which can only be spent on capital projects; an Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST), collected by the school systems to pay for technology and building upgrades; and a Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST), a regional tax used to fund road and highway improvements. 

Last month Laurens County collected more than $1.1 million in SPLOST funds according to Georgia Department of Revenue records. The TSPLOST brought in nearly $1 million for road projects.

The taxes collected trickle down to even the smallest municipalities in the county. Records show the City of Montrose added about $2,400 to its coffers through the LOST.  

“Because Dublin is a regional retail center with major interstate stops, a sales tax is just a good deal for our residents,” Kight said.