Atlanta Water and Sewer Tax up for Vote

The GOP Presidential Primary isn't the only item on the March 6 ballot in the city of Atlanta.

On Super Tuesday, city of Atlanta voters will also decide whether to reauthorize MOST, a one-cent municipal option sales tax that aims to keep water rates down.

If voters fail to renew the tax, water rates could increase by 25 to 30 percent.

"Your water and sewer rates are already high," Jo Ann Macrina, commissioner of the department of watershed management, said Monday night at the Neighborhood Planning Unit- F meeting.

If renewed, the tax rate would remain one-cent and water rates would not increase, she said.

Voters first approved the water and sewer tax in July 2004 and reauthorized it in 2008.

From Oct. 2004 to Oct. 2011, the tax generated $700 million.

The money from the tax is used to keep water rates down. It also supports Clean Water Atlanta, a $4 billion water and sewer infrastructure improvement project. Roughly 20 percent of the money collected pays for improvement projects, Macrina said, which is about $100 billion per year.