NEWS

Chatham County voters have just a few days left to cast their ballots in critical statewide and local elections. Early voting is open through Friday, October 31, before polls officially open on Election Day, Tuesday, November 4.

At the top of the ballot are two statewide races for Georgia’s Public Service Commission (PSC)—the five-member body that regulates utilities across the state. The PSC determines how Georgia will meet its future energy needs, what ratepayers will pay, and how stable, reliable, and secure the state’s power grid will be.

While each commissioner represents one of five districts, all Georgians vote for every member of the PSC. The district that includes Savannah is one of the seats up for election this year. The Chamber encourages members to learn more about the candidates and the impact of these important races.

Locally, voters in Thunderbolt, Port Wentworth, Garden City, Bloomingdale, Vernonburg, and Tybee Island will decide on municipal leadership contests and ballot questions that affect their communities.

Voters will also find two ballot questions, and the Chamber has endorsed a YES vote on the SPLOST 8 program. All the projects to be funded by continuing this one-cent sales tax can be found at voteyessplost.com. By continuing the sales tax, we allow visitors to contribute to funding these much-needed projects.

A second ballot question will eliminate an inflation factor when determining the value of property for the purposes of calculating school taxes. If passed, values will remain static for tax purposes only and will not increase automatically each year at the rate of inflation.

Every vote matters—be informed, make a plan, and help shape the future of our community.