DALTON, Ga. — Just the facts.

That’s what organizers of a forum Tuesday night at Dalton’s Mack Gaston Community Center on a proposed new Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) promised.

“We are facing an important decision,” said Dalton resident Cathy Holmes, one of the organizers of the forum that focused on the 1 percent, six-year, $100 million proposed tax that will be voted on on March 19 in Whitfield County. There is currently a four-year SPLOST that expires on June 30 that was projected to collect $64 million. The new SPLOST, if approved, would start on July 1. The 1 percent sales tax is applied to most goods bought in the county.

About 70 people packed a meeting room at the community center for the event.

Holmes said the meeting was put together by a “very loosely organized group of people” to “give people a little bit more data than they might otherwise get.”

Businessman Jevin Jensen began the presentation by noting that proponents of the SPLOST say it’s just a penny.

“But that’s only a penny if you buy something for a dollar,” he said. “It’s a 1 percent sales tax, so it’s a dollar for every $100 you spend.”

Jensen then went over some of the projects that would be funded by the SPLOST.

If voters approve the SPLOST, Whitfield County would use more than $33 million to demolish the Administrative 1 and 2 buildings, which were each built some 70 years ago and which officials say have structural problems, and build two new facilities; renovate the old section of the county courthouse; and renovate the Gillespie Drive gymnasium for Drug Court, Mental Health Court and Domestic Violence Court.

The county would also use SPLOST funds for the design and construction of a park on land the county owns near Southeast Whitfield High School.

The city of Dalton would use $4 million of its share of SPLOST money to construct a new building for the John Davis Recreation Center to be used as a new recreation center, $1.5 million to build a walking/biking trail to connect Haig Mill Lake Park to the Crown Mill area, $1.3 million for new police vehicles and about $700,000 for new hangars at the Dalton Municipal Airport.

The city would also spend an estimated $1 million to create a railroad “quiet zone,” an area where trains would no longer blow their whistles as they approach and pass through downtown.

Holmes then talked about some of the economic data the group had found.

She said the median household income in the United States is a little over $60,000 and it has risen 2.1 percent during the last year and 8.5 percent during the past three years. For Georgia, the median household income is a little over $56,000 and it has risen 2.7 percent on the year and 9.9 percent during the past three years. But in Whitfield County, the median household income is a little over $40,000 and it has fallen 14.1 percent on the year and 6.6 percent during the last three years.

“That’s not what I expected to find, and I’m sure it’s not what we all wanted to hear,” Holmes said.

Mary Burton asked if any of the new projects would generate revenue.

Jensen said the new hangars at the airport would be leased out to private plane owners.

Attorney Steve Farrow, a former member of the state legislature, said lawmakers passed the law allowing counties to create SPLOSTs to give them an alternative to property taxes to fund projects.

“My question is which of the projects will still have to be done even if the SPLOST fails,” he said.

Whitfield County Board of Commissioners member Roger Crossen said Administrative Building 2, which was built in the early 1940s as a church, will have to be replaced.

“The fire marshal has been very lenient with us, but the cost of maintaining that building is growing and the cost to renovate it and bring it up to code is at least as large as it would cost us to build a new one,” he said.

Crossen said the county will also have to build a new park on the south end of the county.

“We lost two parks down there,” he said. “We lost the Eastbrook park and the Valley Brook park (because of new school construction). Our participation (in recreation league sports) has really gone down in that area. We have to do that. And we have to buy police cars. We have to buy fire engines. We have to pave roads. And if we don’t have the SPLOST, we will have to do all of that out of the property tax.”

Early voting for the SPLOST begins on Monday, Feb. 25.