Committee pushes for special 1% education sales tax

Although no concerned citizens showed up to the Bibb County School District’s sales tax presentation Oct. 13 at Howard High School, members of an independent campaign committee urged voters to adopt the penny on the dollar sales tax on the November ballot.

The Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax is a 1% sales tax for the school district to make capital improvements that would otherwise not fit within the general budget. If the sales tax is passed, the district would be allowed to collect $250 million over five years, according to a Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections notice. 

Bibb County residents can vote for the ESPLOST on Nov. 4 — and early voting started Oct. 14. Also on the ballot are candidates for two state Public Service Commission seats.

According to the district’s proposal, funds from the 1% sales tax will be allocated toward a number of capital projects, including:

— Safety and security improvements to cameras, metal detectors and radio systems

— Modernization efforts at Bernd Elementary School

— Developing and acquiring land

— Technology purchases

— Heating, ventilation and air conditioning improvements

— Roof renovations

— New and energy efficient school buses

Sam Kitchens, the district’s assistant superintendent of operations, said funds will be utilized on items ranging from inclusive playground equipment required by new state laws to updated HVAC units.

“This is not a new tax,” he said. “This is a continuation of an existing tax, a 1-cent sales tax where everyone that purchases something in Bibb County contributes something to the local schools.”

Members of Keep Building for Bibb Students Inc., a ballot question campaign committee, brought flyers to the Howard High School cafeteria to promote the ESPLOST.

Roy Bibb, Horace Braswell and Amy Morton make up the committee.

All of them are all just “concerned citizens,” Braswell said.

The committee seeks to inform voters on what the tax is and its benefits, he said.

“We feel like if the community really understands it and is informed, it’s not a hard decision,” Bibb said.

Only 6% of voters turned out for the county’s most recent sales tax vote in March, when voters passed a special tax to finance various improvement projects in Macon-Bibb.

The education special tax has been collected since 2000 and has been renewed four times by voters. The 2021 version netted $185 million for the district and went toward facility renovations and technology upgrades.

Bibb noted the majority of proceeds from the ESPLOST come from people who live outside the county. Municipalities sometimes implement a sales tax to make up differences in property taxes when forgoing rate increases.

The Bibb County Board of Education voted to raise property taxes over the summer after reducing a larger budget proposed by Superintendent Dan Sims.