Board Of Education Members Concerned About Sales Tax Revenue

A standard feature of the regular meetings of the Oconee County Board of Education is a report from chief Financial Officer Saranna Charping on the collections from the Education Local Option Sales Tax.

Charping’s report on the sales tax on Monday showed a sharp increase in sales tax revenue in December of 2017, but that followed months of slow growth and three months where revenue in 2017 was lower than a year earlier.

The report often is followed by questions from Board of Education member Tim Burgess, and Monday’s meeting was no exception.

Board member Wayne Bagley followed Burgess on Monday with an observation of his own.

Given the expected growth in online sales, Bagley said, “it is a concern” that the Oconee County School system is depending on the sales tax revenue “as a tool for capital funding in the future.”

The school system is engaged in an aggressive building program that includes an $8.6 million expansion of Oconee County High School and $13.2 million for construction of the new Dove Creek Elementary School in the far west of the county.

Those projects are funded by the Education Local Option Sales Tax.

For more on the story, including a video of the meeting and a line chart showing Education Local Option Sales Tax collections by month across the five years of the tax, go to Oconee County Observations.

Pictured: Board members Bagley and Burgess.