Band, art classes, ‘extras’ could be casualties of speaker's Great Plan to shift to sales taxes

If property taxes no longer fund the Fayette County School System, the system could devolve into a shadow of its current self.

That dark message was delivered by Superintendent of Education John DeCotis during a press conference last week. DeCotis addressed the issue of the GREAT Plan for Georgia, just before the General Assembly headed back to work this week. Under the plan advocated by Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson, property taxes would be eliminated for school systems and replaced by a state-administered and state-distributed sales tax.

“If this plan passes, we would not have any local control. People in Atlanta would be determining how much money our school system would get,” DeCotis said.

Fayette County is currently funding more than 50 percent of the total funds needed to run the school system.

“It used to be a 60-40 ratio with the state funding the majority, but that has decreased in recent years,” he added.

Additionally, the county uses property tax revenue to fund 288 teachers, first grade paraprofessionals and many of the county’s art, music and band programs. If the sales tax plan is implemented, many of those programs would disappear.

“A lot of people move to Fayette County because of the extras our school system provides, and those items would be gone,” said DeCotis.

The superintendent is urging residents to contact the legislative delegation and urge them to vote against the Richardson plan.

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