Habersham County Commissioner Bruce Palmer was the only commissioner present at the town hall meeting on Tuesday that he organized. Palmer gave background information on discussion topics and frequently asked questions, but the topic citizens wanted to talk about was one that there are no definitive answers on: LOST.
LOST and E-SPLOST
The hot topic comes from discrepancies between how much local sales tax the county and cities receive versus how much the school board receives. The Board of Education receives two-thirds of the sales tax generated in the county.
The 7 percent sales tax Habersham consumers pay doesn’t all stay in the county. 4 percent is state sales tax, and three percent stays in Habersham. Of that three percent, two percent that goes to the Habersham County School System is in the form of two tax types: an Educational Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST), and a Local Option Sales Tax (LOST). The one percent sales tax split between the county and cities is in the form of a county-wide SPLOST, which Habersham voters overwhelmingly approved in November.
The discrepancies between the taxes the school board and county receive have been a hot-button item in recent weeks, ever since Clarkesville City Manager Keith Dickerson discussed them at length during the city’s Sept. 20 meeting. Habersham County Schools Superintendent Matthew Cooper responded to his comments the next day, sharing his point of view on the importance of the tax dollars the school board receives.
Some Habersham County citizens are advocating for a vote to repeal LOST. Palmer stated his concerns that repealing LOST could create more problems than citizens realize, even though he does agree with some citizens that the school board should not receive the LOST funds it does.
“I’m afraid LOST is going to be detrimental—as far as taxes to our citizens—to change it,” he tells Now Habersham. “Do I agree with it going to the board education? No, I don’t. Do I think it ever should have [gone] to the board of education? No, I don’t.”
Palmer says a strategic, educated approach is needed to address the LOST issue, and that he believes a discussion needs to be had between the commission, school board and municipalities.
“Mr. Cooper’s already quoted in the paper that if they lose it [LOST], that there’ll be a millage increase,” Palmer says. “You really can’t expect that they [the BOE] are going to lose $8 million and not try to recoup some funding from somewhere. It would be very naive to think that.”
Palmer doesn’t think that, even if LOST were repealed, the county and cities would see any increase in funds. But officials from local municipalities, like Clarkesville Mayor Barrie Aycock, disagree.
“It’s possible that if some of this money that has been going to the school system for all these many years— and granted, it was needed, desperately needed, when it happened, but we have built all new schools, and it’s not one percent [sales tax], it’s now two percent because of the E-SPLOST […]— it could possibly mean that the cities could use some of that money, and the county, to reduce taxes,” Aycock said.
No one from the Habersham County Board of Education was present at the meeting. However, the Board of Education had a 4:30 p.m. work session preceding the town hall that was followed by an executive session.
Why the town hall?
Palmer was the only commissioner at the meeting, even though the other three commissioners were invited multiple times. Commissioner Jimmy Tench did watch the livestream.
“This is something that I planned on doing from the time I got elected [to] office,” Palmer tells Now Habersham. “I was going to do them [town hall meetings] once a quarter, and I joked with people that I’m being lazy, I just hadn’t done one yet, but the truth is that it’s taken me this long to get not-so-overwhelmed about everything that was going on, and being able to get the first [town hall] put together.”
Three commissioner hopefuls, Mike Adams, Locke Arnold and Jason Eric Hogan were present, as well as multiple representatives from Habersham’s cities, including the Mayor of Baldwin, Joe Elam, the Mayor of Clarkesville, Barrie Aycock and Mayoral candidate of Mt. Airy, Ray McAllister.
A recording of the town hall is available here.
