School Board Prepares for ESPLOST Expenditures

Douglas County school board this week discussed how the county coffers have been steadily declining since 2007. As the country’s economic downturn continues to impact most Americans, people are spending less and as a result local government is collecting less in sales tax revenue.

An analysis presented to the five-member board during a March 21 committee meeting of the whole shows that money generated from Douglas County’s education special purpose local option sales tax, or ESPLOST, averaged monthly collections of $2.094 million in 2007 and $1.728 million during 2010, a difference of more than $366,000.

“There’s been negative growth in the county for four consecutive years,” commented Bill Camp of Morgan Keegan, the school system’s investment banker of record.  If that trend continues, Camp warned that there will be “some capital projects that you’re not going to get to.”

The school system’s Chief Operating Officer Dudley Spruill said complete renovations are scheduled this summer for Annette Winn  and schools. “We have to do these in the summer because we can’t do them during the school year with kids in the building,” he said, adding that both schools’ roofing, windows, lighting and ceiling tiles are set to be replaced during the construction overhaul. “We have an eight to 12-week window to do the projects,” he said.

Spruill presented board members with a list of some of the facilities improvements needed in the school system. He said he wanted the board to “know what’s coming (to them) in the future.  These are projects the architects suggest we put on the front burner.”

Douglas County’s current tax rate is seven percent, and one percent of that is allocated to the Douglas County School System for its ESPLOT.