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Board of Education rejects state tax proposal

By LEE WILLIAMS
lwilliams@TheCitizenNews.com

Fayette County School System officials say a proposal to use sales tax collection revenues to fund education might seem like a good idea to some, but the devil is in the details.

State legislators are mulling House Resolution 58 that would eliminate school district taxation. If passed, the state would use money collected from sales taxes instead of property taxes to fund education.

But school board officials say no.

In a 4-0 vote Monday, the Board passed a resolution opposing HR 58. Superintendent of Schools John DeCotis drafted the proposal.

“They are talking about replacing the property taxes with sales tax for funding education in Georgia,” DeCotis told the Board. “It may sound good because we would do away with people’s taxes on their homes.”

“The bad part is, of course, if sales taxes go up, which means additional spending, and not only that but if the economy is not good like it was for the last few years and collections are down, they cut your money,” DeCotis said.

Sales tax could go up an extra 3 percent under HR 58.

Fayette County students would lose big under HR 58, officials said. An estimated $4 million in funding would be lost if the law passed.

“School systems such as our own that put more money into education than others would actually lose out because we would not be compensated for the local money we put in, and we wouldn’t have the ability to raise our own local money anymore,” DeCotis said.

Smaller class sizes, fine arts programs, band, extra teachers and para-professionals the county offers could be up for grabs and Fayette County could lose its edge when it comes to education, officials say.

“If this sales tax were to go into effect, our school board would be unable to levy taxes for education, therefore the extra things people move here for we would not be able to supply them anymore,” DeCotis said. “So we’ll have a very negative impact on a lot of our special programs.”

Under HR 58, the school system could have to pay the debt service balance for school construction projects in one year, Board Chairwoman Terri Smith said. This could cause a problem for Fayette County.

“The bond that you just approved in November, we wouldn’t have a way to pay back,” Smith told the public.

School Finance Director Lee Davis said homeowners would no longer be able to deduct property taxes from their personal exemptions on their income taxes. Seniors also will lose under HR 58, he added.

“There’s an age exemption, where a lot of times senior citizens don’t have to pay any property taxes at all,” Davis said. “There is no sales tax exemption or what few sales tax exemptions there are they will basically go away if this passed. So the senior citizens would lose the ability to have that exemption exempted from their property taxes and would pay the full additional 3 percent on their sales tax.”