By PAT NEWMAN
Staff Writer

SPLOST (special local option sales tax) supporters are turning up the heat this week in their campaign to pass a $90 million combined sales tax and bond referendum on Sept. 21.

According to Don Apking, who with Janet Smola is heading up the group called Fayette Citizens for Continued Excellence in Education, 1,500 pro-SPLOST yard signs will be distributed this week to citizens who favor the spending package for more classrooms, improved technology and security devices in Fayette County schools.

“We have a bunch more talks scheduled right up to the 21st,” Apking said. He and Smola are addressing parent groups at school open houses and civic organizations like the Kiwanis Club to lay out the facts and answer questions about the need for a SPLOST. Apking, parent of a Fayette County High School graduate, also heads up the school's athletic booster club. Smola is a parent and fund-raiser for the Joseph Sams School.

Apking said he hopes the information sessions will help the public “understand the facts that are out there” and the reason why this is happening. He can sum it up in one word, “growth.”

The SPLOST steering committee is being guided by Todd Barnes of A.G. Edwards financial group, one of the bond advisors working with the board of education on the SPLOST/bond initiative. The overwhelming feeling of the group is that the facts are so positive, that any negative aspects of the referendum will be overshadowed.

Early in the campaign, Barnes estimated that for a 60 percent or better “yes” vote, slightly more than 7,500 votes would be needed. As of Tuesday, there were 53,503 voters registered in Fayette County. Barnes said historically, there is a 15 to 20 percent turnout for a special referendum, based on statewide observations. “In Fayette County, you can expect a slightly higher turnout,” he said. A 25 percent voter turnout would bring in more than 12,600 voters.

The SPLOST calls for a one-cent sales tax to be levied starting Jan. 1, 2000, and the sale of $50 million in bonds to provide the funds to begin proposed projects immediately. The bonds will be repaid through the money generated by the sales tax. The sales tax ends in five years, or when the school board collects $90 million, whichever happens first.

Passage of the tax would provide 300 classrooms or space for 5,000 additional students, property and buildings for two elementary schools, one middle school and one high school, playground improvements, electrical and technology upgrades at existing schools, a new auditorium for Sandy Creek High School, stadium improvements at Fayette County High School, concession stand, lockers and bleachers, plus rest rooms at Starr's Mill and major renovations at McIntosh, including a new physical education building and upgrades to the existing stadium.