At its
July 10
meeting,
the
Coweta
County
Board of
Education
approved
a
resolution
to
retire
all
outstanding
bond
debt for
school
construction
incurred
before
adoption
of the
Special
Purpose
Local
Option
Sales
Tax for
schools,
or
SPLOST.
In doing
so, the
Board
fulfilled
a
five-year-old
commitment
made to
the
community
during
the 2002
sales
tax
referendum.
“One of
the
promises
the
Board of
Education
made
when
SPLOST
was
passed
in 2002…
was to
pay off
all the
existing
bond
debt at
that
time,”
said
Superintendent
Blake
Bass, at
Tuesday’s
meeting.
Upon
passage
of the
SPLOST
in 2002,
the
School
Board
eliminated
the
property
tax
millage
which
had been
used to
made
bond
payments.
It has
financed
bond
payments
from
sales
tax
revenues
since
that
time. At
its
regular
meeting
on
Tuesday,
July 10,
the
Board
voted to
complete
that
process
through
a
resolution
“authorizing
the
defeasance
of the
series
1998
bonds
and the
series
2002
bonds
and the
execution
of an
escrow
deposit
agreement
in
connection
therewith.”
The
resolution
–
approved
unanimously
by the
Board –
committed
funds
from the
recently
ended
SPLOST
II sales
tax to
fully
retire
the old
bonds,
as the
Board
had
promised
five
years
earlier.
The
action
puts
necessary
funds to
retire
the
bonds in
an
irrevocable
trust
held by
the Bank
of New
York
Trust
Company.
Doing so
ends the
school
Board’s
– and
the
community’s
–
obligations
to those
bonds in
full.
The
bonds
will be
called
by the
trust as
they are
able to
over the
next
year.
The 1998
and 2002
bonds
had
consolidated
previous
outstanding
school
construction
bonds
under
more
favorable
interest
rates.
They
refinanced
older
bonds
which
had
funded
school
construction
projects
from the
late
1980’s
through
the
1990’s,
before
the
community
elected
to fund
school
construction
issues
through
local
sales
taxes.
The
first
five-year
SPLOST
issue
was
approved
by
voters
in 1997.
The
second
was
passed
in 2002,
and
ended
officially
on June
30 of
this
year.
Coweta
County
citizens
passed
the
third
SPLOST
issue
early,
in June
of 2005,
and
sales
tax
collections
from
that
SPLOST
began
officially
on July
1, 2007.
In 1987,
the
school
system
began
its
first
major
building
program
in 30
years,
when
citizens
passed a
bond
resolution
to build
the new
East
Coweta
High
School
campus
on
Georgia
Highway
154 and
other
projects,
such as
the
White
Oak
Elementary
School.
Bond
issues
approved
by
voters
then,
and in
1992 and
1993,
provided
local
funds
for the
construction
of new
schools
to keep
up with
Coweta
County’s
growth,
and the
refurbishment
of
older,
1950’s-era
schools.
As
Coweta’s
growth
continued,
Coweta
County
voters
approved
the
first
SPLOST
for
school
construction
in 1997,
which
was the
first
year
that the
state
allowed
communities
to opt
for
sales
taxes as
a method
of
financing
new
school
construction
and
other
capitol
projects.
SPLOST
revenues
can only
be used
for
school
construction
and
improvements,
equipment
and
other
fixed
capitol
expenditures
(as
opposed
to
personnel
and
programs).
Unlike
bond
issues –
which
typically
are paid
off with
interest
over 20
years –
SPLOST
allows
the
community
to pay
for
school
construction
over the
five-year
period
of the
sales
tax,
with
considerable
savings
on
interest.
Sales
taxes
are
distributed
to
school
boards,
counties
and
cities
by the
state of
Georgia
about
two
months
after
they are
collected
by local
businesses.
The last
disbursements
of
school
sales
taxes
collected
in May
and June
– the
last two
months
of the
SPLOST
II -
will be
received
in July
and
August
of this
year.
Coweta
County
School
System
Comptroller
Keith
Chapman
on
Tuesday
said
that
sales
tax
collections
in
previous
months
have
come in
at
approximately
$1.8
million
per
month.
If that
remains
constant
through
August,
the
total
amount
collected
by the
school
system
under
SPLOST
II
should
total
between
$84 and
$85
million,
Chapman
said. A
significant
portion
of that
amount
were
used in
retirements
of the
older
outstanding
bonds.
$84 to
$85
million
is lower
than the
maximum
amount
allowed
under
SPLOST,
which
could
have
collected
up to
$97
million.
But it
is
higher
than was
previously
anticipated.
During
slow-growth
years in
the
early
2000’s,
sales
tax
returns
were
considerably
lower.
The
school
system
projected
total
SPLOST
II total
returns
as low
as $78.2
million
in June,
2004 and
$79.7
million
in June
2005,
based on
receipts
at that
time.
The
increased
revenues
allowed
the
school
system
to
fulfill
several
commitments
made
during
the
lifetime
of
SPLOST
II,
including
the
early
retirement
of
millions
of
dollars
in pre-SPLOST
school
construction
bonds,
the
construction
of
Willis
Road,
Grantville
and
Welch
Elementary
School,
Lee
Middle
School,
and
major
school
expansion
and
improvement
projects
at many
schools,
including
the
three
high
schools,
the
Central
Educational
Center,
Ruth
Hill and
others.
As the
last
sales
tax
collections
are
received
in the
coming
months,
the
school
system
will
provide
a more
detailed
accounting
of
projects
financed
by
SPLOST
II.