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.