RINGGOLD, Ga. — The failure of the Fort Oglethorpe City Council to approve anl agreement with Catoosa County on a special purpose local option sales tax could cost the city more than $2 million.

A motion Monday night by Councilman Harold Silcox to approve the agreement failed for lack of a second.

Catoosa Finance Officer Carl Henson said Tuesday the county still could hold a referendum on whether to renew the 1 percent sales tax projected to collect $56 million over five years.

But with Fort Oglethorpe not approving the agreement listing projects for the tax, a “yes” vote could result in the money being divided on a population formula, he said.

Under that formula set in state law that went into effect in July 2004, Fort Oglethorpe would get $2.1 million less than with the projects list the county had sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Mr. Henson said.

Fort Oglethorpe City Manager Ron Goulart said Tuesday a special called meeting of the City Council will be held at 5:15 p.m. today to reconsider the agreement.

“It wasn’t voted down or approved either,” Mr. Goulart said, contending the city still can approve the agreement and the projects list.

Some on the council have been critical of the division of funds as laid out in the SPLOST plan, saying the city does not get a fair share, considering where most of the sales tax revenue is generated.

Mr. Silcox said Monday he would approve the agreement and let voters decide Sept. 16 if they like the special purposes to which SPLOST funds would be applied.

Mayor Ronnie Cobb also urged the council to let voters decide.

But when none of the other council members present seconded the motion, it died without a vote.

The Ringgold City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve the list of projects and referendum in its proposed form.

Mr. Silcox said Tuesday that failing to approve the agreement could cost the city millions of dollars.

“It doesn’t make good walking around sense to possibly turn down that amount of money,” he said. “I believe my colleagues may not have fully understood the consequences of their failure to act. I hope we can salvage this situation with a vote Wednesday to approve the agreement.”

Late Tuesday, Catoosa officials huddled to consider a SPLOST distribution without an intergovernmental agreement. With Mr. Henson were County Manager Mike Helton, Commission Chairman Bill Clark and County Attorney Skip Patty.

Mr. Patty said the proposed referendum will be sent to Kennesaw State University where officials will proof read the material before it is forwarded to printers.

“The absolute drop-dead date to have the referendum information to the appropriate officials is July 16,” Mr. Patty said. “Having said that, there was concern expressed about having sufficient time to accomplish everything.”

He said a review of the law found alternative methods for distributing SPLOST revenues.

Without the agreement, the county can use 20 percent of the funds, if voters approve the tax, for a specific list of projects.

The rest of the SPLOST revenues would be divided among incorporated governments according to population.

Under that formula, about $40 million of the tax funds would be divided, with Catoosa County getting 83 percent; Fort Oglethorpe 12.7 percent, or about $5 million; and Ringgold about $1.8 million or 4.5 percent.

Under the agreement Fort Oglethorpe will reconsider today, the city would get $7.1 million and Ringgold would get $2.5 million.

Mr. Cobb said he is prepared to cast the deciding vote today if there is a 2-2 tie vote and Councilman Johnnie “Red” Smith hasn’t returned from a medical trip to Nashville with his wife.