Even assuming for a moment

that the school projects we're asked to finance are all

worthy of support, there's still the question of who will

pay, and how.

To some of us, it would

make sense that schools be paid for as they are being

used, just like homes with mortgages. That means

spreading the cost over 25 years, rather than only five.

Just as many of us have not been residents of Fayette

County for all of 25 years, many of us won't be here for

all of the next 25 years. Why then should we prepay for

the schools that will be used over the next 25 years?

It's fair, and smart, to spread out the cost over all the

users.

What we can raise through a

5-year sales tax we can even more easily raise through

25-year bonds. (The school board won't give you this

choice and doesn't want you to know about it.) A

competent expert analysis shows that the property taxes

needed to finance bonds in an amount equivalent to what

the sales tax would raise would cause about one-sixth the

pain to the pocketbook. In other words, for each $6 we'd

pay in sales tax we'd be out of pocket only $1 with a

property tax. Let's see how this happens.

The most sales tax you're

likely to pay is on cars. Here, a 1-percent sales tax

increase can easily cost you $250. Each time. Ouch! (So

much for "the penny tax.") You'll also pay it

on food and clothing. It so happens that businesses like

Home Depot, Wal-Mart, the banks, drugstores, grocery

stores, etc., don't need to buy cars, food or clothes, so

for all practical purposes they don't pay much sales tax.

(In fact they receive a small commission for collecting

sales tax.) But businesses do pay property tax, over 25

percent of it, in fact, so they would help pay the bonds.

The school board hopes to

raise $15 million in sales tax in 2000. Out of 100,000

residents, that's $150 per man, woman and child, or about

$450 per household. Business and visitors' purchases may

cut that $450 down to $400. If the board issues bonds for

the same amount as the sales tax would yield, the average

cost per household the first year is likely to be $125,

and as the property digest increases at the 8-percent

annual rate the school board is projecting, that cost

would decrease to $92 by year 5.

Deducting this amount on

income tax returns results, in most cases, in a

first-year net cost of $83 per family, and $61 in year 5.

That sure beats paying $400 per year! (Believe it or not,

bonds would have the average family pay $961 over 25

years, instead of $2000 over five years with the sales

tax. Of course, new families that move into the county in

years 6 to 25 would pay something toward the bonds, too,

which would only be fair.)

When your children come

home and tell you, "But Mom, all the other kids do

it!" what do you say? (Answer: "You're not like

the other kids, we love you more.") Well, a bunch of

other counties around us have, lemming-like, adopted an

extra sales tax. Are they smart? No. Are we in Fayette

County smarter? Our IQ test is coming up on Sept. 21.

"Just say no" is not just for our children, and

not just about drugs.

There is a positive aspect

to this. If the sales tax can be defeated again, the

school board may finally realize it needs to go to bonds,

the less painful alternative by far. The board would be

wise to break down its list of projects on the ballot

into separate items to enable our responsible citizens to

approve the most worthy projects, like the construction

of the new schools, while letting us line-item veto the

pork barrel projects.

Unfortunate as it is that

the school board hasn't yet seen the light, another NO

vote on the sales tax will help move it in the right

direction. The school board wants to hold pep rallies in

support of its plans. (Those kamikaze pilots in World War

II must have needed these pep rallies pretty bad, too.)

All I can say is that those

who would accept a genuine public debate on this, not

just a pep rally, will find me willing to go speak about

it. The education of our children is important for all of

us, but why should our financing alternatives be limited

to the most harebrained of them all, that tax du jour

known as SPLOST?

A NO vote on Sept. 21 is,

regretfully, still the responsible answer to the school

board's irresponsible parent-pandering plans.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayette County

[email protected]

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