The Fayette County Board of Education Feb. 17 unanimously approved the purchase of 24 schoolbuses using local 1-cent sales tax (SPLOST) revenues designated for that purpose and, in the case of six of the buses, the combined use of SPLOST and available state bond funds.
The school system will purchase 14 of the 72-passenger buses for a total of $1.11 million using SPLOST funds and four of the 48-passenger buses for $378,000, also with SPLOST dollars.
Six additional 72-passenger buses will be purchased using both state and local funding. Of those, state bond funds will cover $457,752 with the remaining $18,468 coming from local sales tax revenues.
School System Audits and Financial Reporting Coordinator Tom Gray at the meeting reported that the school system’s SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) revenues through January totaled $32.2 million. Gray said revenues were tracking a little lower than had been previously anticipated and might result in total collections of approximately $101 million.
Passed by voters in November 2008, the six-year collection period has a maximum collection amount of $115 million. The first collections came in 2009 in the late spring.
Revenues since the beginning of the current school year last July have averaged $1.597 million per month, with a December low of $1.496 million and a January high of $2.054 million.
A portion of the SPLOST revenues were designated to purchase schoolbuses.
