The Fayette Citizen-News Page
Wednesday, July 21, 1999
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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