By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Because the continuation of a penny sales tax for education is the only item on the county-wide ballot on next Tuesday, November 3, there is some concern that a low turnout could see the proposition fail.
We hope not. Please vote for the proposition,
and also take someone to the polls with you for them to vote.
Should the proposition fail, it also would put Gwinnett behind-the-eight ball in positioning itself to fund new school buildings for the ever-growing Gwinnett population. Yes, the county is still growing at a rate faster than many Georgia counties. Gwinnett schools gained 2,800 new students in the fall of 2015. The county is now teaching 176,000 students. The total Gwinnett population in 2014 was 877,922, up 18,068 in one year. Gwinnett operates the 13th largest school district in the nation, right after Palm Beach County, Fla., and right above Dallas, Tex.
Another reason to vote for the proposition is that its failure to pass would put Gwinnett County at a competitive disadvantage in economic development. That’s because companies planning to start up, or move, want to be in a community where there is a superb school district, as Gwinnett has now. That costs money, and the one cent for education sales tax has fueled school improvements in major infrastructure improvements since its first passage in 1997. Without the continued one penny for education, other counties would be out telling people that Gwinnett does not care about education! Horrors! It would be hard to sell companies that would bring additional jobs here.
Remember that the E-SPLOST is a tax for a specific purpose, in this case education. Too, it is sunsetted, and cannot be used but for the purposes in the proposition. Approving the tax is not a tax increase, but a continuation of collection of a penny for education on every retail sale in the county. Gwinnett has passed the continuation in 2001, 2006 and 2011.
Of 159 counties in Georgia either now, or have in the past,158 used E-SPLOST taxes to help build schools in their county. Several counties have E-SPLOST on the ballot this year. The most money for E-SPLOST comes in the counties, such as Gwinnett, with a large retail base. Rural counties, having a smaller sales volume, don’t benefit as much. Many of the smaller counties don’t have to erect new schools as fast as Gwinnett must.
A researcher at Georgia State University, Nicholas Warner, tells us that counties with failed E-SPLOST votes “….which resulted in an interruption in E-SPLOST were followed by a subsequent passed referendum in that county when the school systems have brought another, more acceptable E-SPLOST proposal. I have found evidence of this for Washington, Stewart, Greene, Pike, Hart, and Baker Counties.” He also adds: “While E-SPLOST has been popular with the voters of Georgia, generally speaking, since the law passed in 1996, it would appear that when systems have had difficulty with their E-SPLOST referendums, they have tended to be rural systems with smaller numbers of students.”
Among counties where E-SPLOST programs expire in 2014, several counties have passed the proposal already. That includes Chattahoochee, Peach and Polk Counties. The issue is on the ballot in Bibb and Glynn County this year.
And that one county in Georgia which has never asked for passage of an E-SPLOST tax? That would be Burke County, whose county seat is Waynesboro. But if you had a nuclear plant in your county that threw off $14,376,036 in ad valorem taxes for schools last year, you might not need that tax, either
For Gwinnettians, let us show our pride in our award-winning school system, and fund its infrastructure in the immediate future by passage of the 2015 E-SPLOST proposal on November 3!
And recognize, if your city is having an election Tuesday, that polling place is at your City Hall. To vote in the E-SPLOST referendum, you must go to your local county voting precinct..
Get out and vote on Tuesday!
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