ESPLOST passes; Wilson elected to Hiawassee City Council

Jonathan Wilson

By Shawn Jarrard

Towns County voters said “YES” to another Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax in the Nov. 7 Special Election, with 59% of voters supporting the 1-cent sales tax referendum.

And in the Hiawassee General Election that ran alongside the countywide referendum, city voters elected Jonathan Wilson to the lone City Council seat on the ballot, handing him 65% of the vote. Wilson earned 157 votes to defeat Elizabeth “Babette” Dunn, who received 83 votes.

For ESPLOST, 745 county residents voted “YES” to ESPLOST, with 519 “NO” votes. There were 12 absentees and one provisional ballots to be accounted for at press time.

Overall voter turnout for the referendum was low, likely due to ESPLOST being the only item on the countywide ballot; just 1,265 people voted out of 10,551 active registered voters, calculating to a meager 12% of the electorate casting ballots to decide the tax.

Still, a win is a win, and Towns County Schools Superintendent Dr. Darren Berrong said he, the School Board and the entire School System were grateful to voters.

“I simply want to thank the voters for their support in passing the ESPLOST,” Berrong said. “This decision paves the way for crucial investments in our community’s education and infrastructure, ensuring a brighter future for generations to come.

“This community’s dedication to the betterment of our schools and facilities is a testament to the strength and unity of our community.”

Berrong went on to say that the passage of ESPLOST “guarantees that there will be no need to consider raising property taxes for at least five years.”

The Towns County Board of Education decided in May to put the ESPLOST referendum before voters to raise money for needed capital improvements at the schools.

Now that ESPLOST has passed, the local sales tax rate will increase in April 2024 by one penny on the dollar to 8%, replacing the longstanding 7% sales tax on eligible goods and services.

Once ESPLOST goes into effect, the local sales tax rate will remain 8% for at least two and a half years, and the Towns County Commissioner’s Office will have to decide whether to seek renewal of the currently running county SPLOST in 2026.

The ESPLOST features a $15 million collections cap and can run for a maximum of five years, meaning that the ESPLOST will expire either in five years’ time or once the cap has been collected.

As noted above by Berrong, property owners can breathe a sigh of relief, as ESPLOST revenues will shore up the School System’s budget for years to come, making School Board members much less likely to perceive the need to raise the property tax rate to complete capital improvement projects on campus.

And the School Board is breathing a sigh of relief, too, as the annual budget has been growing steadily tighter from pandemic-era cost hikes mixed with the gross property digest inflating from an influx of move-ins driving up local real estate values.

The latter has increased the “local fair share” the School System must contribute to educate Towns County schoolchildren. In other words, the state has been sending less money because of the higher digest, leaving the schools – and by extension taxpayers – to fill in the gap.

Planned ESPLOST projects include new ball field facilities; waterline relocation beneath the parking lots; parking lot repaving; reworked HVAC, roof renovations and technology at the Elementary School; basketball gym AC; floor replacements at all schools; and more.

ESPLOST also enables enhancements of the new grant-funded Agriculture Facility that is expected to start construction next year.

This will be the School System’s fourth ESPLOST since voters first approved the additional school penny at the local level in 2001.

Voters renewed ESPLOST in 2006, and the schools took a break from the 1-cent sales tax in 2011 to let the county run a SPLOST referendum of its own while still maintaining a 7% local sales tax rate.

Before the county SPLOST could expire, however, the School Board perceived the need to ask voters once more for ESPLOST support, and the third ESPLOST passed in May 2016, resulting in a nine-month overlap of SPLOST and ESPLOST collections producing an 8% local sales tax.

But the School Board let the last ESPLOST expire in October 2020, a full year early, to make room for another county SPLOST while again maintaining a 7% sales tax at the time.

Hiawassee Election

Voter turnout for the city election was higher than the turnout for the referendum, with 32% of the 756 active Hiawassee voters casting ballots.

And now that Wilson has won election to the Hiawassee City Council, he will swear into a four-year term at the start of the new year.

Wilson is an EMT with Towns County EMS, where he has worked for years serving the public. His family has deep ties to the area, and he graduated from Towns County Schools.

For close to 20 years, Wilson has volunteered as a local firefighter at Towns County Fire & Rescue, with a focus on educating local children on fire safety.

On election night, Wilson, his wife Vanessa and their 6-year-old son Kaleb had just gotten home from a youth basketball practice – Jonathan is a coach – when a friend sent the family news of his victory.

“Everybody was jumping for joy,” Wilson said before expressing appreciation for his wife. “We worked hard; my wife helped me with my mailouts and making sure that everybody who called my cellphone and left messages was answered in a timely manner. She was basically my campaign manager.”

Added Wilson, “I’m glad that all the people that I went out and talked to got to voice their opinion and choose who they wanted. I’m excited to get in there and listen to what the citizens want me to do as a City Council member.”

Incumbent Council Members Jay Chastain Jr. and Nancy Noblet qualified unopposed in August, and each will start an additional four-year term in January.