SPLOST: The $115 million question

What will we be reading about SPLOST on the electronic tablet that serves as our ballot, on Nov. 4?

No, it won’t be “Who was the longest reigning British monarch?” That was the $1 million dollar question for state school superintendent Kathy Cox on the TV show Who’s Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? We get only three choices: Yes, no, or pass.

These are the very words we’ll read, which I have split up into two parts for convenience:

“Shall a special one percent sales and use tax for educational purposes be imposed in Fayette County for a period not to exceed twenty (20) calendar quarters and for the purpose of raising not more than $115,000,000 of net proceeds by said tax, which shall go to the School District ...”

This is the pain part of the deal. A 1 percent sales tax will be coming (if enough people vote Yes). But note the soothing limitations: no more than 20 calendar quarters and no more than $115 million.

Unfortunately, there is no one to explain that in a county with 100,000 people this represents $1,150 per person. Not per family, but per person. Count the number of persons in your household, and multiply $1,150 by that number. If you have three persons, your family is pledging a contribution of $3,450, or nearly $700 a year.

Next comes the list of attractive goodies this should bring, in these words:

“... for the purpose of

“(i) paying a portion of the principal and interest due on School District Series 1999, 2001 & 2005, the maximum of amount of total debt service to be paid shall not exceed $38,000,000;

“(ii) adding to, renovating, repairing, improving, and equipping existing school buildings and school system facilities;

“(iii) acquiring miscellaneous new equipment, fixtures and furnishings for the school system, including technology infrastructure, equipment and software, safety and security equipment;

“(iv) acquiring textbooks; and

“(v) acquiring school buses and transportation and maintenance equipment,

“the maximum amount sales and use tax proceeds to be spent on projects (i) through (v) shall not exceed $115,000,000?”

Note that this is horrendous English. No high school English teacher would ever approve of a sentence this complex and this long. This is a question to which voters are asked to answer Yes or No, but in the version originally submitted by the school board there was no question mark at the end, because by the time the person who wrote this reached the end of the text he had forgotten that it had started as a question.

In case the reader could not figure out the meaning of the word “twenty,” the writer supplied “(20)” next to it, in reference to calendar quarters which, in the end, simply total five years. Notice also how the voter is made to read twice that the amount won’t exceed $115 million. (Are we smarter than a fifth-grader or what?)

The first item refers to School District Series 1999, 2001 & 2005 while omitting the word bonds, as if the words School District Series 1999, 2001 & 2005 had an independent and clear meaning. Without the word bonds, this is gibberish.

Picture in your mind, for a moment, the five members of the school board meeting with the school superintendent. Whenever they meet, you have two doctors in the house (Dr. DeCotis and Dr. Todd). With two doctors in attendance, nobody notices that the word “bonds” — essential though it seems — is missing.

Such writing is a disgrace, especially from a school system that purports to teach English to our kids. Only the gullible are impressed by gobbledygook like this, and the law certainly does not require people to write like zombies. The Georgia Constitution, for instance, makes it clear the period could have been stated as simply five years. But I digress. Let’s look at the tax.

Currently, each 1 percent of LOST and SPLOST tax in Fayette County brings in between $20 and $21 million a year. Thus it is a fairly sure bet the tax won’t quite raise $115 million and will last the entire five years.

The list of goodies here has five items — referred to as projects — with the number one item paying off some of the school bonds. This provides a talking point for people who are looking for property tax relief.

Yet the wording of the question offers no guarantee of a minimum amount to be devoted to that purpose. We’re simply promised that at most $38 million, or a third, of the new tax may go to property tax relief.

In the old PowerPoint presentation found on the school system website, the school system comptroller indicated that the annual property tax relief for a family with a $250,000 house would be about $132. For a family with three persons in it, that’s $44 a year per person. Over five years, it’s $220, while the SPLOST tax, as we saw, comes to about $1150 per person, or five times the relief. (To pay $1,150 to save $220 hardly seems smart.)

Actually, the school board has the power to use the sales tax paid in 2009-14 to provide property tax relief for the people who would have paid school bond tax in 2023-27. Unfair as that may be, there’s nothing to prevent it from doing that.

The second item is about new schools and fixing old schools. It is obviously very vague. It even includes school system facilities, which makes it even more vague.

The third item is about furnishing the schools. School administrators like the buzz word technology, so they put it in. It is generally computers, but a school system overflowing with tax money would most likely put in security equipment as well. To a gadget lover, anything with a wire and a blinking light is technology.

The fourth item is about textbooks. Public schools always furnish textbooks. School board minutes for the Aug. 4 (evening) meeting show that superintendent DeCotis recommended this item be added to the wish list at the last minute, and the school board members went along.

The fifth item is about school buses and transportation equipment.

The most interesting feature of this list is that it promises nothing new. There is no commitment. This is a blank check being presented to the voters for their signature.

Another feature of this list is that it is designed to pick up costs that are normally considered routine maintenance and operations costs, like textbooks. When the sales tax picks up these costs, it leaves more money in the regular budget to cover items, like travel, not intended to be financed by a SPLOST.

The Georgia Constitution, at Article 8, Section 6, Paragraph 4(b), makes clear that the tax may be used for capital outlay projects, and the question arises whether items like repairs, software, and textbooks would qualify.

A Georgia Attorney General opinion from 1997 indicates that the term capital outlay projects includes school buses and equipment with an extended useful life. But how extended does that useful life have to be?

This can open the door to a court challenge, which might end up being financed by the taxpayers, on the ground many of the proposed expenditures do not constitute capital outlay projects.

No one also warns the voters that the state will keep 1 percent of their tax (as an administrative fee, under Georgia code section 48-8-141) and the collecting merchants another .5 percent (code section 48-8-50(b)), wiping out $1.725 million of their tax.

It is unfortunate that many voters will see this question for the first time when they go vote. They will assume, as many do, that behind all this foggy writing there is a well-thought-out idea which comes with the recommendation of their trusted elected officials, so they’ll casually vote Yes.

It will be interesting to see whether a majority of Fayette voters will be like that.

The ultimate irony would be for us to have to wait in line to vote for a couple of hours while some dopey voters read this question in the voting booth, while no doubt moving their lips, for the very first time. I am sure they’ll want to read it twice.

Another Paquin whopper

Submitted by bowser on Thu, 10/02/2008 - 9:30am.

He sez: "Unfortunately, there is no one to explain that in a county with 100,000 people this represents $1,150 per person. Not per family, but per person. Count the number of persons in your household, and multiply $1,150 by that number. If you have three persons, your family is pledging a contribution of $3,450, or nearly $700 a year."

Unfortunately, no one has explained to Mr. Paquin that county residents are not the only people who pay a county sales tax.

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Please be patient…

Submitted by Claude Y Paquin on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 9:44am.

This topic will be addressed next week.

From attending teacher’s college, and later teaching adult education courses, I learned that people can best absorb information when it is presented in small bites. Thus I prepared a lesson plan for the citizens of Fayette County, with eleven lessons in it.

My first lesson, published on Aug. 13, presented a history of the sales tax in Fayette County. One key point was that the people of Fulton and DeKalb counties were fooled in 1971 into believing the MARTA tax they were voting for would go down after seven years. Thirty-seven years later they’re still paying the full tax.

The second lesson, on Aug. 20, explained how large businesses unload a bit of their property tax onto consumers whenever there’s a shift from property tax to a sales tax. Thus Chambers of Commerce have good reason to support sales taxes that do that.

The third lesson, on Aug. 27, refreshed Fayette citizens’ memory about the school SPLOST vote of 1999, and the school board’s unethical practices trying to get it passed.

The fourth lesson, on Sept. 3, provided a history of the school bond vote of 2000, and explained how it became the source of high school bond taxes for 2008 and 2009.

The fifth lesson, on Sept. 10, showed how school bond property taxes are scheduled to go down appreciably starting in the fall of 2010, with no SPLOST.

The sixth and seventh lessons, on Sept. 17 and 24, provided a review of the explanations the school system had given for SPLOST, before they were withdrawn and hidden away in early September. These lessons showed the school board greatly exaggerated the extent of its problems.

The eighth lesson, on Oct. 1, showed the voters the exact question they will read on their ballot, and it explained what financial impact a Yes vote will have on them.

So we have three more lessons to go, and then will come the exam. Hang in there!

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I'm all ears, Mr. Paquin

Submitted by bowser on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 12:55pm.

If by "this topic" you mean the blatantly erroneous math you present as fact in paragraph 6, I can hardly wait for your elucidation.

Or for the correction I expect Mr. Beverly to run alongside your next installment if he's doing his job as editor.

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FCBOE member =Luckydog

Submitted by alittlebirdietoldme on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 7:16am.

you have to be a member or family...no one else would so sickeningly defend their propanda as you do...give us a break and lay off Mr. Paquin...he is your worst nightmare isn't he?

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Sorry, Ms. Paquin

Submitted by bowser on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 7:35am.

Your birdies have misinformed you. I'm just a parent and homeowner.

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So is Kathy Cox

Submitted by alittlebirdietoldme on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 8:06am.

when she wants to be

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Paying sales tax is the problem

Submitted by CCB on Thu, 10/02/2008 - 12:05pm.

Luckdog,

No one is paying sales taxes now. That's the problem.

The state could be down $2 billion this fiscal year. If this thing doesn't correct itself, all these governments dependent on sales taxes are going down hard.

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N.I.C.O.L.E....F.I.L.E.. I CAN SPELL IT...AND VOTE IT

Submitted by suggarfoot on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 6:19pm.

SHE IS AN OPEN BOOK, ONE I WOULD HAVE TRUST IN IF SHE EVER ASKED FOR A SPLOST...

BUT SHE WON'T

DESPITE THE BRAGGING OF SOME THAT THEY WERE WALL STREET WIZZARDS..

NICOLE WON'T DO THAT, SHE WILL JUST FIGURE OUT WHAT IS BEST FOR US

AND OUR KIDS...

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Footnote on SPLOST: the $115 million question

Submitted by Claude Y Paquin on Tue, 09/30/2008 - 4:56pm.

As I stated in previous weeks, there has to be a practical limit to the length of my articles, out of respect for the readers’ time and not to use up newsprint unnecessarily. For readers who prefer more complete explanations and have the patience to read them, I provide this footnote in electronic form.

The reaction of some readers to my article might be that the law itself compels the weird wording we find on our ballots. That’s only partly right.

In past letters to the editor, I have at times advised readers about the amendments to our Georgia Constitution that would be offered for our approval on the ballot. I have always said that our Georgia Constitution was a mess and was made even more so by all these amendments. (We have three more this year.)

The Georgia Constitution [article 8, section 6, paragraph 4(c)(3)] states specifically that the maximum period of time may be stated in calendar years or calendar quarters and may not exceed five years. Thus it was clearly unnecessary to write twenty (20) calendar quarters when five years would have done the job and shortened the question.

For non-educational SPLOST votes, Georgia Code section 48-8-111(c)(1) prescribes wording in this form: Shall a special 1 percent sales and use tax be imposed in the special district of Fayette County for a period of time not to exceed ____ and for the raising of an estimated amount of $_____ for the purpose of _____?

For education SPLOST votes, Georgia Code section 48-8-141 seems to refer us to section 48-8-111 for the wording. When one compares the school board’s wording with that section’s wording, it is obvious the school board has not complied exactly with the statutory wording.

If substantial compliance is good enough, that means the board had plenty of discretion to write the question in good English.

How, then, could that question have been written? Here’s one possibility, which I believe represents compliance with the law and fairly good English.

Shall a special one percent sales and use tax be imposed in Fayette County for a period not to exceed five years and for the raising of an estimated amount of $115,000,000, for the purposes and under the conditions shown below?

The purposes of the tax, which shall go to the School District, are (1) paying a portion of the principal and interest due on school bonds denominated as School District Series 1999, 2001 & 2005,with a maximum of $38,000,000 devoted to that purpose; (2) adding to, renovating, repairing, improving, and equipping existing school buildings and school system facilities; (3) acquiring miscellaneous new equipment, fixtures and furnishings for the school system, including technology infrastructure, equipment and software, safety and security equipment; (4) acquiring textbooks; and(5) acquiring school buses and transportation and maintenance equipment.

The maximum cost of all these items and the maximum amount of net proceeds to be raised by the tax shall be $115,000,000.

That may not be wonderful language, but at least it is understandable and decent.

Writing questions on our ballots in decent English is essential to our knowing what we’re doing, and we must insist on it. It can be done!

As I stated in the main article, it is dubious that all the purposes stated for the tax comply with the Georgia Constitution’s intent that they be for capital outlays.

Georgia Code section 48-8-141 makes all the provisions of sections 48-8-110 to 48-8-122 applicable to a school board, including the need to report on project expenditures each year. As the reports call for an original estimated cost on each project, it is hard to see how the Fayette school board will be able to comply when its projects are so vague and wide open.

What we’re seeing is the proverbial pig in a poke.

When I brought up the fact the voters were not warned that $1.725 million of their tax would be wasted on paying the state a 1 percent administrative fee (for absolutely no more work than it is doing now) and that the collecting merchants would keep another .5 percent (for absolutely no more work than they are doing now), I omitted one small detail.

Under Georgia code section 48-8-50(b) the merchants get to keep 3 percent of the tax on the first $3000 of monthly tax they collect. Then they get to keep .5 percent on the rest. At the current 6 percent sales tax rate, the first $50,000 of monthly sales thus produces a greater commission for the merchants.

What this means is that the voters are throwing away even more than $1.725 million in fees and commissions.

The irony, for many merchants, is that with the fees they are charged on credit and debit cards, they might end up losing money when they are reimbursed only .5 percent for collecting the tax.

Thus the taxpayers lose, the merchants lose, and the credit card companies make money. Isn’t that the way a large segment of our society wants it?

Who was the longest reigning British monarch? It’s no secret it was Victoria.

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