High noon for SPLOST
vote By
CAL BEVERLY
and PAT NEWMAN
Staff Writers
The
Fayette County Board of Education will meet
Thursday at noon to vote on calling a $90 million
school construction referendum in two months.
Approval
of the proposed referendum will start the legal
process of filing a request with the United
States Justice Department for a special election
to be held Sept. 21.
According
to Jim Stephens, finance director for the school
system, the one-question referendum will include
the sale of general obligation bonds and a
one-cent SPLOST to be imposed starting Jan. 1,
2000, and continue for five years. SPLOST
revenues will be received by the school board
starting in March 2000, Stephens said. The
anticipated revenues will also pay back the
bonds.
If
the board decides against a September referendum,
the next available time will be in November, or
at least 60 days after filing an election request
with the Justice Department.
Voters
will decide in the referendum whether to pay for
a new $23 million high school, a new 65-classroom
middle school, and two new elementary schools in
the southern and western parts of the county,
plus additions and repairs at existing schools.
More than $11 million is earmarked for athletic
facilities, including a new gymnasium for
McIntosh High School.
The
board will ask voters to approve a one-cent
special local option sales tax to generate the
needed $90 million. The tax imposed on all
retail sales within the county except for food
and certain other exempt items will last
until the needed amount is collected or for five
years, whichever is sooner.
Of
the $90 million package, $50 million will be in
the form of bonds to generate immediate funds to
start building the schools, according to
Stephens.
In
effect, the system hopes to sell $50 million in
bonds to investors later this year, borrowing
that amount up front to get moving quickly on the
construction projects. The system will pay back
the bonds using the SPLOST collections over the
next five years. The remaining $40 million or so
will fund later construction and additions,
Stephens explained.
The
meeting at noon Thursday will be at the system's
administrative headquarters on West Stonewall
Avenue in Fayetteville and is open to the public.
In
earlier action, the board voted unanimously in a
called meeting July 16 to ask two competitors to
act as their advisors to craft a $91 million
school building package for voter approval this
fall.
Three
members wanted A.G. Edwards, while two others
wanted Robinson-Humphrey to prepare the combined
special local option sales tax and bond proposal.
DeCotis recommended both companies, and the board
authorized DeCotis to negotiate an
arrangement which would involve both. He
assured the board the pairing would cost no more
than a single company. No costs were announced.
We've
heard various amounts for the bond as part of the
SPLOST $50 million or $40 million or $20
million, all have been suggested,
Superintendent Dr. John DeCotis told the board.
He suggested the two companies together could
come up with the final package.
There's
an advantage to borrowing up front, DeCotis
said. You get more cash up front to start
building with. He said floating a bond
would provide enough money to start right away on
constructing the most needed schools. That might
help eliminate some inflation costs,
he said.
Budget
overruns of as much as $15 million got the last
building project in serious trouble, and
lingering suspicions remain among some voters, if
letters to the editor and public forums are any
indication.
On
the other hand, DeCotis said, the strength of the
SPLOST is that it forces you to pay as you go,
building only as much as the school board
collects in sales tax revenue over a five-year
period. That saves on interest costs, he said.
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