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James BurgessAshburn City Council

James Burgess for Ashburn City Council

City Budget · Where Ashburn's money comes from and where it goes

Taxes

LOST

Local Option Sales Tax

The everyday penny: 1 cent on every dollar you spend in Turner County.

Bottom line: Ashburn gets 34 cents of every LOST dollar, about $413,000 last year, and the city can spend it on regular services.

Who paysAnyone who shops in Turner County
Who gets itCounty 58%, Ashburn 34%, Sycamore 5%, Rebecca 3%
Ashburn, July 2025–June 2026$413,341
The year before$456,921

How the money moves

  1. You pay 1¢ on the dollar at the register
  2. The state collects it and keeps a 1% fee
  3. It's split by an agreement the county and cities sign every 10 years
  4. Ashburn's 34% goes into the city's main account (General Fund)

Who gets each dollar

Turner County58%City of Ashburn34%Sycamore5%Rebecca3%

Ashburn's LOST check, month by month

July 2024–June 2025July 2025–June 2026Since July 2026
$0$10k$20k$30k$40k$50kJul: $40,632Jul: $34,283Jul: $38,945JulAug: $40,923Aug: $37,646Aug: $37,994AugSep: $37,949Sep: $33,083Sep: $34,150SepOct: $36,693Oct: $33,609OctNov: $38,506Nov: $33,008NovDec: $37,721Dec: $37,661DecJan: $48,178Jan: $38,092JanFeb: $36,925Feb: $32,791FebMar: $37,326Mar: $31,028MarApr: $34,778Apr: $35,869AprMay: $33,770May: $34,083MayJun: $33,520Jun: $32,188Jun

It can pay for

  • Police, fire, streets, parks, City Hall: almost anything in the regular budget
  • By law, it's also supposed to hold down property taxes. The rollback shows on your tax bill.

It can't pay for

  • It isn't set aside for projects. It goes into the city's main account with everything else, so there's no separate report of what it paid for.

What the records show

  • Ashburn's share was about 28% in 2018. It rose to 34% in 2023 after the county and cities renegotiated following the 2020 census.
  • Last year's check fell 9.5%. Every sales tax in the county fell about the same, so people spent less countywide. Ashburn's 34% didn't change.

What we can't see yet

  • LOST mixes into the General Fund, so the only way to see what it paid for is the city's audit. The last public audit covers 2019–20.

Anyone can ask City Hall for these records. Here's how.

In the Ashburn Comeback Plan:7.6Where the City's Money Goes, in Plain English

Ask about this

How much LOST does Ashburn get?Why did the LOST check go down?Why does the county get 58%?
Where these numbers came from
  1. Georgia Department of Revenue, sales tax distributions
  2. Georgia DOR distribution rates, Sept 2024

Compiled from public records as of October 22, 2026. Sales tax figures are unaudited state payment records; audits are the official word on what the city spent. For anything official, call City Hall at (229) 567-3431.

Paid for by James Burgess