SPLOST Renewal, Bond Issue To Go To Voters Tuesday
Commerce Voters Can Vote In Two Separate Referendums
With nothing else on the ballot, a relatively low turnout is expected for next Tuesday’s referendum on the renewal of the special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) for education.
If successful, the current one-percent sales tax would be extended another five years during which it could produce up to $100 million for the Jackson County, Commerce and Jefferson school systems. If that happens, Jackson County would collect $63 million, Jefferson $22.6 million and Commerce $14.7 million based on a formula tied to enrollment.
For Commerce voters, the real question on the ballot is whether they want to upgrade Commerce High School or stay in the oldest high school building in Jackson County.
A new CHS is the main focus of Commerce’s plans to spend its share of the sales tax income for the next five years – $14.7 million, but passing the county SPLOST referendum is just the first step. To build a new high school, voters must also approve a city referendum for a $20 million general obligation bond.
“Failure is not an option,” said Superintendent Dr. James E. “Mac” McCoy. “We are going to pass it. If it does not pass, the other option is raising the bond millage rate.”
The plan is to build a new high school in three phases on the land now occupied by the current facility. The project would provide classroom space for 750 students and common areas – library, cafeteria, gym – for 1,000. The bond issue is based on a cost estimate of the project.
Technically, if voters were to not approve the SPLOST, but approve the bonds in the city election, the board of education could vote to sell the bonds and obligate the taxpayers to repayment via property taxes.
“We would have to make a decision,” McCoy conceded. “But we don’t have to sell the bonds just because we pass the referendum.”
Approval of the SPLOST but defeat of the bond will kill the new high school, McCoy said.
“We could not do any major construction. We could do some additions and that sort of thing,” he declared.
Citizens for Better Schools has been founded to promote passage of both referendums. Each school system has a committee.
“I can’t speak for the other committees, but our committee is working,” McCoy said. “One is doing fund-raising and a number are doing phone calls, telling people where to vote.”
Because the SPLOST is a county referendum and the bond issue is a city referendum, half of Commerce’s voters will be asked to vote at two different polling places. Those who cast ballots in the new North Minish District at the Commerce Recreation Department building on Carson Street will vote on the SPLOST there and then be directed to the J. Nolan Spear Jr. Public Safety Complex on South Elm Street to vote on the general obligation bond referendum, which is a city referendum.
“I think we’ve got a plan now on how to communicate that and to negate any frustrations there may be,” said McCoy. “Hopefully, we’ll get people out and they’ll do what they need to do for this community.”
COUNTY PLANS
Jackson County would use SPLOST funds to add classrooms at North Jackson Elementary and East Jackson Middle schools, do various renovation projects, acquire land for future schools, purchase furniture, equipment, computers and other hardware, pay down its $70 million bond debt and build a new elementary school on Gum Springs Church Road.
Should the referendum fail, county leaders say voters can expect higher property taxes, more mobile classrooms, difficulties in getting facilities improvements and technology and a shortage of materials and equipment.
The polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. in all precincts. Advance voting is under way at the Jackson County Administrative Building for the SPLOST referendum and at Commerce City Hall for the Commerce School System’s general obligation bond referendum.
Renewal of the SPLOST will require a 50 percent-plus-one majority of the combined vote in all three school districts.

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