Houston schools SPLOST revenues lagging

PERRY — Houston County Schools will see a deficit of $4.24 million in SPLOST funds if current trends in collected revenue continue during the next 30 months. The issue was addressed in a report presented by Stephen Thublin, assistant superintendent for finance and business operations, during last week’s board of education work session.

The current SPLOST, which took effect in 2007, was expected to generate up to $123 million by fall 2012. About 43 percent of those funds had been collected during the SPLOST’s first 30 months as of Nov. 30, Thublin said, and revenue is up less than 0.1 percent, or about $4,000 over this time last year.

To generate the revenue required for its expenditures, a 4.8 percent growth rate is needed during the remaining 30 months.

According to the report, the revenue collected to date covers capital projects such as construction of Mossy Creek Middle, Hill Top Elementary, Lake Joy Elementary and about $50 million toward Veterans High School, which will cost about $58.5 million.

Among the items that board officials will need to pay for with SPLOST funds in the coming 30 months is $53 million in bond principal and interest payments.

From 1983 to 2006, the tax base in Houston County grew an average of 7 percent annually, Thublin said, and in 2006 reached 14 percent. However, by the time the current SPLOST went into effect, that growth had slowed.

In 2008, the SPLOST revenue was down for the first time since 1997. In addition, construction costs have skyrocketed in recent years, affecting the cost of building new schools in Houston County. Huntington Middle was completed for $11 million in 2006, but just a year later Mossy Creek Middle cost Houston County nearly $20 million.

The potential shortfall in funds will not affect Veterans High School, but it will push back the construction of Veterans Middle School, which would start construction in 2013 at the earliest, Thublin said. Original projections put the school’s cost at $14.5 million, but Thublin said that number would increase by the time the school is built.

“There is no way to pay for it. There are no additional funds on this SPLOST,” Thublin said.

If the SPLOST doesn’t generate the revenue needed, one possibility the Houston County Board of Education may face is allocating money from its general fund to the debt service fund to cover the deficit, Thublin said.

Another option is to seek another SPLOST as soon as 2011.

“What we’ll receive for the next 30 months ... will determine what will pay those final bonds,” Thublin said.