The

Fayette County Board of Education will meet

Thursday at noon to vote on calling a $90 million

school construction referendum in two months.

Approval

of the proposed referendum will start the legal

process of filing a request with the United

States Justice Department for a special election

to be held Sept. 21.

According

to Jim Stephens, finance director for the school

system, the one-question referendum will include

the sale of general obligation bonds and a

one-cent SPLOST to be imposed starting Jan. 1,

2000, and continue for five years. SPLOST

revenues will be received by the school board

starting in March 2000, Stephens said. The

anticipated revenues will also pay back the

bonds.

If

the board decides against a September referendum,

the next available time will be in November, or

at least 60 days after filing an election request

with the Justice Department.

Voters

will decide in the referendum whether to pay for

a new $23 million high school, a new 65-classroom

middle school, and two new elementary schools in

the southern and western parts of the county,

plus additions and repairs at existing schools.

More than $11 million is earmarked for athletic

facilities, including a new gymnasium for

McIntosh High School.

The

board will ask voters to approve a one-cent

special local option sales tax to generate the

needed $90 million. The tax - imposed on all

retail sales within the county except for food

and certain other exempt items - will last

until the needed amount is collected or for five

years, whichever is sooner.

Of

the $90 million package, $50 million will be in

the form of bonds to generate immediate funds to

start building the schools, according to

Stephens.

In

effect, the system hopes to sell $50 million in

bonds to investors later this year, borrowing

that amount up front to get moving quickly on the

construction projects. The system will pay back

the bonds using the SPLOST collections over the

next five years. The remaining $40 million or so

will fund later construction and additions,

Stephens explained.

The

meeting at noon Thursday will be at the system's

administrative headquarters on West Stonewall

Avenue in Fayetteville and is open to the public.

In

earlier action, the board voted unanimously in a

called meeting July 16 to ask two competitors to

act as their advisors to craft a $91 million

school building package for voter approval this

fall.

Three

members wanted A.G. Edwards, while two others

wanted Robinson-Humphrey to prepare the combined

special local option sales tax and bond proposal.

DeCotis recommended both companies, and the board

authorized DeCotis "to negotiate an

arrangement which would involve both." He

assured the board the pairing would cost no more

than a single company. No costs were announced.

"We've

heard various amounts for the bond as part of the

SPLOST - $50 million or $40 million or $20

million, all have been suggested,"

Superintendent Dr. John DeCotis told the board.

He suggested the two companies together could

come up with the final package.

"There's

an advantage to borrowing up front," DeCotis

said. "You get more cash up front to start

building with." He said floating a bond

would provide enough money to start right away on

constructing the most needed schools. That might

help eliminate "some inflation costs,"

he said.

Budget

overruns of as much as $15 million got the last

building project in serious trouble, and

lingering suspicions remain among some voters, if

letters to the editor and public forums are any

indication.

On

the other hand, DeCotis said, the strength of the

SPLOST is that it forces you to pay as you go,

building only as much as the school board

collects in sales tax revenue over a five-year

period. That saves on interest costs, he said.

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