(Monday - 7:00 p.m.) the Douglas County Board of Education will voted on another Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST) referendum. The sales tax is estimated to bring in $105 million over 5 years. The public vote will be November 8, 2011.
According to Superintendent Gordon Pritz, the SPLOST proposal will split the revenue fifty percent to construction projects and fifty percent to bond debt reduction.
Two board members have expressed their concerns to me that they and the public have been left out of the process.
Find out what's happening in Douglasvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The school board has set the operation and maintenance millage rate at 20 mills, the maximum allowed by law. This rate can not be increase. The bond debt payment millage is set at 4.1 mills. The school ad valorem tax represents about 2/3 of your property taxes.
School officials are threatening to raise the debt millage (property taxes) if voters fail to approve the 5 year $105 million SPLOST tax. You’ve heard threats like this before from the county commissioners. In 2009 Chairman Tom Worthan said if we didn’t pass the SPLOST property taxes would increase. It did pass but Worthan still push through a 1.9 millage rate increase.
Find out what's happening in Douglasvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The question is should we give school officials another $105 million?
