I attended the Douglas County Board of Education’s business meeting last might anticipating a vote on a resolution for a $122 million Special Purpose Local Option Sales (SPLOST) Referendum to take place in November. The vote never happened.
The issue was on the agenda and it was reported by the media that a vote would take place. Board members were also expecting a vote but due to concerns from members Mike Miller and D.T. Jackson the agenda turned to discussion only.
Miller was concern that the board and the public were never given information to explain what was being voted on and what projects were needed. Nor did the resolution state an actually guarantee of a 50/50 split of the revenue. School superintendent Gordon Pritz has publicly stated the proposal was to split the SPLOST money 50/50 between bond debt reductions and school system improvements.
After I reviewed the SPLOST resolution it was apparent the ballot language was vague and lacked any specifics as to how the tax dollars would actually be spent.
For instance, it states “the maximum amount of total debt service to be paid shall not exceed $95,000,000”, but the stated anticipated revenue is $122 million for the 5 year tax. Board member Janet Kelley stated her concern about the $95 million as stated in the resolution could mislead voters into believing they would actually see a $95 million in debt reduction.
This resolution left open to doors for the board to spend zero on debt reduction or up to $95 million.
Now that’s what I call wiggle room!
Another issues raised by Miller was the lack specificity in the proposed SPLOST project list. It only states generalities like “renovations, repairing, improving, furnishing equipping exiting school buildings”, etc. It also included acquiring land and building new school buildings. It doesn’t state which schools need repairs or the anticipated costs for any projects.
It became clear to me that school administrators and some board members were attempting to pass a SPLOST resolution that would allow them to spend the money in any way they want. It was never revealed the actually millage rate reduction property taxpayers would get.
It was also revealed that the actual anticipated revenue was around $105 million. The inflated amount of $122 million was to insure no money was left on the table because the SPLOST tax collection would end after 5 years or the stated anticipated revenue was collected.
So basically they are talking about splitting $100 million between debt reduction and improvement projects.
The school system lawyer explained that he wrote the ballot language so as to not bind the officials to any specific project or amount.
This is a dangerous practice and I can seek why Mr. Miller is so concerned about what the school staff and lawyer was attempting to do.
At this time I will not support a new SPLOST tax for schools, through the debt reduction option is tempting.
The school board and staff must get their s*#@ together. Come up with a specific list of needed projects and have a stated guarantee of the debt reduction before it passes a resolution and presents it to the public for a vote.
The vote on the E-SPLOST resolution by the board is expected July 18.
My question is: Do we really want to give this board another $100 million? Can they even justify the need? Stay tuned!
