Now that the tax increase plot known as SPLOST has been turned away, we must attempt to deflect the school administration's peevish efforts to take out its disappointment on the children they are charged with educating. Like spoiled brats, school administrators have threatened trailers, double sessions, bigger classes, etc. These may have been idle threats to motivate the voters to let them have their way with the sales tax, but if they begin carrying out their threats we'll have to make changes to our board of education at the first opportunity next year.

In the last days of the SPLOST campaign, pro-SPLOST people began to circulate misinformation about the possibility of issuing bonds to pay for new schools. In the local rag that displays the deficiencies of our educational system by persistently misspelling “its” and “your,” a last-minute letter to the editor argued that bonds are paid out of the school's operating budget, which is false. In a Q&A elsewhere, it was argued the property tax could not be raised as it was almost at its maximum 20 mills, a dishonest ploy to make people forget there are two separate tax levies for schools on our property tax bills: one is for school operations, and the other is for school bonds. There is no limit on the school bonds.

School bonds have always been a possibility to finance new schools, and they remain a possibility. With presidential primaries, general primaries, and general elections coming up next year, there will be plenty of opportunities to propose something constructive to the taxpayers without creating the expense, and inviting the low voter turnout, of a special election.

The following table shows the millage rates we have been paying for our schools over the last nine years, with the newly released 1999 figures added in. As you examine this table, keep in mind that 1 mill is equivalent to $40 of tax per $100,000 of fair market value. Thus the 20-mill limit on the schools' operating budget is $800 per $100,000 of fair market value.

Fayette County School Millage Rates, 1990-99

Year School School Total

budget bonds

1990 16.79 4.02 20.81

1991 18.75 4.24 22.99

1992 18.04 3.99 22.03

1993 17.84 3.99 21.83

1994 18.84 5.99 24.83

1995 19.84 5.59 25.43

1996 19.84 5.24 25.08

1997 19.84 4.99 24.83

1998 19.84 4.15 23.99

1999 19.84 3.69 23.53

I believe it was in 1993 that bonds were last issued, which would explain the 2-mill bond tax increase for 1994. Then, as I have argued all along during the SPLOST campaign, the rate went down gradually year by year.

Each 1-mill increase in our bond tax should enable us to borrow $31,250,000 (or so). This assumes we'd get 20-year bonds with a 5 percent interest rate. (Other duration and interest rate possibilities exist, but this gives you an idea of how things work.) That one-mill would then decrease over the life of the bonds, just like it is with existing bonds.

If the school board would eliminate the waste and the frills in its proposals, and proceed with a bond issue in a reasonable amount, it could have all the resources to build any new schools that are needed, and avoid trailers, overcrowded classrooms, double sessions, and all the ridiculous things it has threatened.

Our educational deficiencies are reflected in our media's inability to do the math. Fayette County citizens are portrayed as different from those of other counties, who fall for the misinformation that is fed to them. Enough of our citizens understand both the math and the political process to let us avoid the mindless taxation others are all too willing to endure. Our children do matter, but we can handle their educational needs in a smarter way. The school board can either listen, or move out of the way.

Claude Y. Paquin
Fayette County
cypaquin@msn.com

Back to Opinion Page | Back to the top of the page