Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST)
On Dec. 31, 2008 the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for schools will expire unless renewed by voters in a local referendum. Approved in September 2003 and implemented Jan. 1, 2004, SPLOST II is the school district’s second five-year one-penny sales tax on retail goods. Here is a look at some of the numbers associated with SPLOST over the last nine years:
$485 million
The amount of money Cobb County taxpayers have saved by using a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to fund school projects over the last nine years instead of issuing bonds. Since the inception of SPLOST, bonds and the long-term interest payments that accompany them are no longer needed. The District has been able to fund more than $1.166 billion in new school construction, additions, renovations, technology, and safety and security improvements through a one-penny consumption tax with no interest. Had that money been borrowed at the same rate and under the same terms as the 1995 Bond, Cobb County taxpayers would still be paying back nearly half a billion dollars in interest over many years.
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Board members and Superintendent Fred Sanderson celebrated the final payment on the District’s bond debt in February 2007. |
$184 million
School debt paid off using SPLOST funds. The District was able to use $184 million in SPLOST receipts to retire the debt leftover from the 1995 Bond. By using SPLOST funds to retire the debt early, the school board was able to lower the tax rate for property owners by eliminating the debt-service millage.
| $65 |
Annual savings for the owner of a $165,000 property (average Cobb County value) resulting from the elimination of the debt-service portion of the school property tax. |
| 30% |
Approximate percentage of SPLOST receipts contributed by non-residents of Cobb County. SPLOST is funded by anyone who spends money in Cobb County, and that includes all visitors and tourists. |
| 32,777 |
Number of computers more than five years old replaced throughout the District in 2007 using SPLOST II funds. |
| 8,512 |
Number of teachers receiving a laptop
computer provided by SPLOST II funds. |
| 21 |
Total new schools constructed under both SPLOST programs. Allatoona High School and Pickett’s Mill Elementary School are the final two of nine schools constructed under SPLOST II. Both schools open in August 2008. |
| 400 |
Number of portable classrooms remaining, down from 680 in 2003.
It is unlikely SPLOST will ever allow the District to entirely eliminate portable classrooms. At some schools, portable classrooms are the only practical solution for space needs due to property limitations. Portables also allow the District flexibility to deal with enrollment shifts on a temporary basis. But SPLOST has allowed the District to make great strides toward minimizing the use of portables, catch up with enrollment growth and contend with state-
mandated class-size reductions. More than 900 new classrooms were added under SPLOST II, and approximately 280 portables eliminated. |
| Students at Murdock Elementary celebrated the opening of the school’s new classrooms in August 2007 |
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| 1,982 |
New classrooms (additions plus new schools)
built with SPLOST funds since 1999. |
| 17,000 |
Approximate number of new students enrolled
since the inception of SPLOST in 1999. |
| 70 |
Number of elementary schools to receive access-control systems for external doors – one of the safety initiatives included in SPLOST II. In addition, the number of surveillance cameras in all Cobb County high schools increased substantially, and cameras were added to middle schools for the first time, all as part of the safety initiatives in SPLOST II. |
SPLOST 2 receipts for the fiscal year ending June 2007 in the amount of $129,712,300 exceeded the projected receipts of $129,280,553 by $431,747, for a variance of 0.3%. Total SPLOST 2 receipts of $405,586,847 have exceeded the projected receipts of $402,063,510 by $3,523,337, which is a variance of 0.9%. It must also be noted that the revenue reflected is net of the 1% administrative fee retained by the Georgia Department of Revenue. The total administrative fee retained by the State since inception amounts to $4,077,047.
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