Voters will

head to the polls in March and decide whether the Coweta County School

System's special sales tax should be continued after this June.

Last March,

voters rejected an extension of the tax, but this year the school system

is also calling for a referendum to lower property taxes for seniors.

The county

Board of Education Tuesday night approved resolutions for both referendums,

and is hoping the senior tax issue also will be voted on in March.

If the legislation

can't get hammered out in time, public information officer Dean Jackson

said the vote on the senior exemptions would occur in August.

Jackson said

the senior citizen referendum will call for raising property tax exemptions

to exempt the first $40,000 of assessed value for Coweta County property

owners aged 65 to 69; $60,000 assessed value for citizens aged 71 to 74;

and $80,000 assessed value for citizens 75 and over.

The proposal

matches a structure suggested by a citizens' committee of senior citizens

convened last month by board member Allan Payton.

If approved

senior tax exemptions would show up on the 2003 tax bills, according to

state law.

A renewal of

the current special purpose local option sales tax would bring in an estimated

$90 million over five years, said school officials, and would be targeted

at repayment of outstanding debt from bond referendums in the early 1990s,

new school construction and a host of classroom additions, repairs and

refurbishments at existing schools, Superintendent of Education Richard

Brooks said.

Board member

Allan Payton said that citizens "must understand that this is not

a tax increase, it's a renewal of an existing tax."