Atlanta voters in both Fulton and DeKalb counties are headed toward renewing the city’s penny sales tax that has funded water and sewer projects since 2004. Residents were on track to approving the program by a wide margin late Tuesday night.

The Municipal Optional Sales Tax, or MOST, was instituted as part of a consent decree to address a federal lawsuit over water quality violations.

The renewed tax is estimated to collect roughly $1.1 billion over the next four years. It will take effect in October and extend through September 2028.

Since its inception, its also helped avoid a water and sewer rate hike for customers. Failure at the polls would almost certainly mean rate hikes, city officials said.

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Voters cast their ballots inside the Buckhead Library voting precinct in Atlanta on Monday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Ben Hendren for the AJC)

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Former Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman talks to her daughter, Wandrea ArShaye "Shaye" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, after she testified before the U.S. House Select Committee at its fourth hearing on its Jan. 6 investigation on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS)

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