Friday, August 22, 2003
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Friday, August 22, 2003 |
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County trying to project SPLOST revenue By JOHN THOMPSON While the Coweta County School System's Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax collections are running higher this year, the system is still worried about collections down the road. Public Information Director Dean Jackson said the county's comptroller, Keith Chapman, ran a report showing the system's tax collections for the last five years. From August of 2002 to last month, the system collected $13.89 million in taxes. During the prior year, the system collected $13.78 million. "While its up only .8 percent, some systems are seeing a decrease this year," Jackson said. The increase pales in comparison to the systems collections of sales tax dollars in the 1990s, when increases of 8 to 12 percent a year were not unusual, Jackson added. The system is currently in the second year of the current SPLOST, which outlined nearly $97 million in projects. If the system keeps collecting $13 million a year, it would fall more than $30 million short of projections. "We just don't know if the economy's going to turn around," Jackson said. Still, with the money collected, Jackson said the system will be able to finish their initial projects, such as a new elementary school, and retire the bonded indebtedness.
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