Health & Fitness
Oconee County Board of Education Chairman Explains Board Strategy On Sales Tax Vote
The Oconee County Board of Education is asking voters to approve a new sales tax on Nov. 8 to support a number of projects in the schools. BOE Chairman David Weeks explains.
Oconee County schools are behind other schools in the area in terms of technology, and passage of the Nov. 8 Education Special Purchase Local Option Sales Tax would help correct that.
Athletics are important to the development of the child, and the proposed athletic facilities at North Oconee High School that are part of the tax proposal will help meet the needs of students there.
The Oconee County Board of Education needs to borrow money now against future revenue from the proposed tax because state money could be available for the projects if the school system can demonstrate it has money in hand.
These are some of the arguments advanced by David Weeks, chairman of the Oconee County Board of Education, in the final days before voters decide whether to renew the one cent on the dollar sales tax to support education.
Weeks said he hopes voters “feel confident enough” in the school board and its “track record of what we have been able to do” to approve the new tax, formerly referred to as an Education Local Option Sales Tax, or ELOST.
Weeks met with me on Oct. 27 at the Barberitos restaurant he owns on Lumpkin Street in Athens. We talked for 30 minutes about the tax, about criticisms I've heard of the tax, and about the Board of Education's strategy in fashioning the ballot language.
For details of the interview and links to a full video of it, go to Oconee County Observations.