Education Tax Referendum Receives Overwhelming Support

Oconee County Schools’ gambit of seeking early approval of a new Education Local Option Sales Tax in a low-key election paid big dividends on Tuesday with 83.6 percent of the 1,924 voters who cast a ballot approving.

Turnout was the lowest ever for any of the six Education Local Option Sales Tax referendums going back to 1997 and involved the second smallest number of voters.

The 83.6 percent approval vote, however, was 13.4 percentage points higher than the vote in 2016 for the current sales tax and was exceeded in support only by the first two votes on the 1 percent tax in 1997 and 2002.

The referendum also included authorization for the Board of Education to issue general obligation bonds for up to $42,950,000 to finance construction of a list of new capital projects, including a third middle school in the far northwest of the county.

The campaign for the referendum centered on communication to school employees and messages sent by Superintendent Jason Branch and school principals to parents of enrolled students.

Approval was highest among the 1,254 voters who cast a ballot in-person in advanced voting (87.0 percent), and lowest among the 35 voters who cast an absentee ballot (68.6 percent).

The 635 voters who went to the polls on election day (only 33.0 percent of the total voters) gave the referendum a 77.8 percent approval.

For more on this story, please go to Oconee County Observations.