The Columbia County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution in regards to a levy and collection of an annual ad valorem tax for the Columbia County School District.
County attorney Chris Driver said the school district is issuing bonds and they need the county to sign-off on the resolution, which states if the sales tax the school district has to pay the bonds isn’t enough, the district can ask the county to implement a millage increase for them.
“You are obligated to do this, it’s not something you cannot do,” Driver said.
Board commissioner Doug Duncan said that because the county is the taxing authority, it must approve bonds for entities.
According to the agenda document, the school district in 2019 authorized issuing $160,000,000 in general obligation bonds to provide funds to pay part of the capital outlay projects. In 2020, the school board issued a general obligation bond, series 2020 for $56.67 millionp.
“The Board of Education now wishes to issue the remainder of the bonds in the amount of $107,330,000. If the money is not satisfied from the proceeds of the sales and use tax, the Board of Education will implement a property tax increase to cover the difference. Like all tax increases by the Board of Education, this must be approved by the Board of Education,” according to the agenda document.
