Porterdale Mayor Arline Chapman is encouraged the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) will pass in the election March 21.

Chapman wanted to provide clarification that the SPLOST tax would not be an additional tax on Newton County residents, but a continuation of a tax that has been in place for more than 30 years.

“I think some of the opposition to it, in my opinion, is a punishment for things in the past that contradicts things we want in the future,” she said. “I personally am somewhat optimistic that it will pass.”

Chapman said without the SPLOST, citizens will see the money come from other sources.

“I don’t know how we’ll handle things if it does not pass,” she said. “I think that everybody in the county is going to feel a property tax go up – I mean, the money is going to have to come from somewhere.”

Chapman said as a citizen of Newton County she is allowed to encourage people to vote for SPLOST, as long as she makes it clear that she is acting as a private citizen and not an elected official.