While the Coweta

County School System's Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax collections

are running higher this year, the system is still worried about collections

down the road.

Public Information

Director Dean Jackson said the county's comptroller, Keith Chapman, ran

a report showing the system's tax collections for the last five years.

From August

of 2002 to last month, the system collected $13.89 million in taxes. During

the prior year, the system collected $13.78 million.

"While

its up only .8 percent, some systems are seeing a decrease this year,"

Jackson said.

The increase

pales in comparison to the systems collections of sales tax dollars in

the 1990s, when increases of 8 to 12 percent a year were not unusual,

Jackson added.

The system

is currently in the second year of the current SPLOST, which outlined

nearly $97 million in projects.

If the system

keeps collecting $13 million a year, it would fall more than $30 million

short of projections.

"We just

don't know if the economy's going to turn around," Jackson said.

Still, with

the money collected, Jackson said the system will be able to finish their

initial projects, such as a new elementary school, and retire the bonded

indebtedness.