Collection of a 1-percent sales tax used to fund various Gilmer School System projects will continue for at least five additional years following countywide voting last Tuesday.
The lone special election ballot item asking whether the E-SPLOST should be renewed passed with 793 voting yes and 425 voting no.
The total advance/Election Day voting represented 5.34 percent (or 1,218) of the county’s 22,822 registered voters.
Projects the tax revenue could be used to fund include any of the following:
﹣ A performing/fine arts center
﹣ Renovation, construction, improvement, additions and equipment for Ellijay Elementary School
﹣ Improvements and equipment for the Gilmer College and Career Academy including agricultural facilities and greenhouses
﹣ Athletic facility additions, improvements and equipment at current facilities including the Gilmer High School (GHS) Gym, marching band practice facility and softball facilities
﹣ Construction of a wrestling facility
﹣ Curriculum materials including textbooks, e-books, lab equipment and band instruments
﹣ Upgrading technology such as computers, laptops, tablets, mobile devices, servers, wiring and wireless antennas
﹣ Upgrades to necessary hardware, software and programs
﹣ New school buses and fleet maintenance vehicles and equipment
﹣ Acquisition, construction and equipping of real and personal property, safety and security equipment, renovations and other improvements at existing facilities.
Past local E-SPLOST funded projects include construction of Mountain View Elementary, Clear Creek Elementary, the Gilmer High School Gym and the Clear Creek Agriculture Education Center and Cannery, as well as new school buses, renovation of Huff-Mosley Memorial Stadium and various other technology upgrades and construction projects.
Gilmer Schools Superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley said the top two priorities from the new project list are the performing arts center and renovating Ellijay Elementary School.
“We can’t spend money on anything that’s not in that referendum,” Ridley said. “The performing arts center has been promised in the last two SPLOSTs, but we haven’t collected enough money for it. We do have some set aside for that (project) already. Ellijay Elementary is an older building that’s already been updated a couple of times. We’ve got a nice, new school out at Clear Creek, and Mountain View is in great shape. Now it’s Ellijay Elementary’s turn.”
The amount of sales tax revenue to be raised over the next five-year collection period will not exceed $70,000,000.
The recently approved E-SPLOST will pick up when the last one, which began in 2020, ends. It’s not a new tax, but a continuation of the one already in place, Ridley noted.
“A SPLOST is basically a covenant with the taxpayer and the district. It tells you exactly how much we can take in. When you reach that limit, the SPLOST is over. Because of the economic growth we’ve seen in this community, the 2020 E-SPLOST was going to run out before its five-year run. That’s why we went ahead and had the referendum now, so when that one ends, the new one will just continue,” he added.