Friday, January 11, 2002
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Friday, January 11, 2002 |
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SPLOST vote is March 19 By JOHN
THOMPSON Voters will head to the polls in March and decide whether the Coweta County School System's special sales tax should be continued after this June. Last March, voters rejected an extension of the tax, but this year the school system is also calling for a referendum to lower property taxes for seniors. The county Board of Education Tuesday night approved resolutions for both referendums, and is hoping the senior tax issue also will be voted on in March. If the legislation can't get hammered out in time, public information officer Dean Jackson said the vote on the senior exemptions would occur in August. Jackson said the senior citizen referendum will call for raising property tax exemptions to exempt the first $40,000 of assessed value for Coweta County property owners aged 65 to 69; $60,000 assessed value for citizens aged 71 to 74; and $80,000 assessed value for citizens 75 and over. The proposal matches a structure suggested by a citizens' committee of senior citizens convened last month by board member Allan Payton. If approved by Coweta County voters during the 2002 local referendum, the rise in senior tax exemptions would show up on the 2003 tax bills, according to state law. A renewal of the current special purpose local option sales tax would bring in an estimated $90 million over five years, said school officials, and would be targeted at repayment of outstanding debt from bond referendums in the early 1990s, new school construction and a host of classroom additions, repairs and refurbishments at existing schools, Superintendent of Education Richard Brooks said. Board member Allan Payton said that citizens "must understand that this is not a tax increase, it's a renewal of an existing tax."
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