Since 2005, citizens have been involved with reviewing plans and expenditures under the voter-approved Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax programs.
While the state mandated that municipalities receive a share of county SPLOST revenues in 2005, Gwinnett County began sharing its penny sales tax with the cities in 2001.
In 2005, an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) established two committees - Joint Technical and Citizen Review. Both committees were continued with the 2008 Intergovernmental Agreement. With the 2014 Intergovernmental Agreement, only the Citizen Review Committee continued.
The Joint Technical committee consists of city and county representatives working together on technical aspects of the SPLOST program. Such technical issues include reviewing compliance with the resolution, intergovernmental agreements, and overseeing an external audit to ensure citizens have an independent accounting of SPLOST funds.
The Citizen Review committee members receive the audit results along with updates on the progress and expenses of SPLOST-funded projects.
The makeup, meeting schedule, structure, and agendas of committees are at the discretion of city managers and the County Administrator. The County's Financial Services department coordinates the annual meetings.
