The Columbus City Council has approved the Mayor's request for a permanent one percent sales tax for the city. With the Council's approval, the sales tax referendum will be placed on the July 15 ballot for Columbus citizen's to vote on.

The Mayor is requesting a one percent increase in the current retail sales and use tax. Increasing the tax would generate an estimated $36 million a year for the City of Columbus.

If passed, the Mayor wants to use the generated funds to hire 100 more police officers, 70 sheriff's deputies and five marshals. He would also like to increase the current pay of Columbus' law enforcement officers, making Columbus more competitive in the job market. Other projects include building an addition on the detention facility to house 600 more inmates, add three more police precincts, a new fire station, replace an aging station on 29th Street and other needed improvements to Columbus' infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, and sewers. The Council is hoping, by increasing the sales tax, the local property tax can be rolled back.

The current sales tax in Columbus is seven percent. The State of Georgia receives four of the seven percent for a state sales tax, two percent goes to the City of Columbus - one percent from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) and another percent from the 1976 permanent sales tax - and one percent goes to the school district. The school district tax and the SPLOST tax are set to expire later this year.
 
If passed, the tax would take effect January 1, 2009.