The East Point City Council voted Aug. 14 to place a municipal-option sales tax referendum on the Nov. 4, 2025, ballot to extend the imposition of a 1% water-and-sewer projects and costs tax and to cap the maximum net proceeds at $35 million.

The resolution directs the city clerk, acting as election superintendent, to issue the call for the referendum and sets a maximum time period for the proposed tax of four years. The ballot question approved by council will read, in substance, whether a 1% sales and use tax shall be imposed in the city of East Point for up to four years for the purpose of funding water and sewer projects and costs.

City staff and councilors said the $35 million cap replaces an earlier placeholder amount of $43,308,183 that had been included in the draft resolution. Melissa Echeverria, the city’s Water Resources Director, told the council the city is currently receiving about $544,000 from the state per month on average from the existing municipal-option sales tax distributions. “Right now, with the current trends, we’re on target to meet in that 27,000,000 dollar bracket,” Echeverria said, and she added that a “healthy number would be 33 to $35,000,000.”

The resolution text read into the record cites East Point’s charter authority to operate and regulate water and sewer services and the state statutory framework that permits municipalities to use a municipal-option sales tax for water and sewer projects. The staff reading referenced House Bill 160 (approved by the Georgia General Assembly and signed into law in 2021) and OCGA §48-8-200 as the statutory authority under which the referendum is being called.

Council member Ziegler moved to adopt the resolution “authorizing the MOST referendum with the maximum net proceeds not to exceed $35,000,000.” The motion was seconded and carried on an affirmative voice vote. No opposing votes or abstentions were recorded on the audio transcript; the council indicated the motion “carries.” The resolution authorizes the city clerk, with concurrence of the city attorney, to correct scrivener’s errors in the ballot language before issuance.

Councilors and staff discussed the trade-off between listing a dollar cap and using the four-year maximum; city staff noted state procedures require follow-up communications to the city (for example from the Georgia Department of Revenue) if the dollar cap is reached before the four-year maximum. Councilors also said they favored a higher cap than the $27 million figure that simple multiplies of current monthly averages would produce, to avoid having to return to voters before four years if actual receipts fell below earlier projections.

The meeting record shows councilors also directed staff to prepare public education materials about how proceeds would be used. Echeverria said the city’s GIS manager, Torey Mohammed, is preparing a map that will show completed and remaining water- and sewer-line projects; she said the materials will include photos and color-coded maps to show which areas have been rebuilt and which remain “critical water and sewer lines” in need of work.

Next steps listed in the resolution require the city clerk to issue the formal call for the referendum and allow staff and the city attorney to finalize numeric and scrivener edits before filing. Council members set a September work session to discuss education and outreach materials so voters can see how funds would be spent if the referendum passes.