By Katie Pedersen and Kyle Williams

On Tuesday, November 8^th, we have a chance to vote “Yes” for City Schools of Decatur.  Tomorrow, Decatur voters decide whether to continue the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) by answering “Yes” or “No” to a very long, legalese question that begins “Shall a special one percent sales and use tax for educational purposed continue to be imposed in DeKalb County for not longer than 20 quarters, beginning July 1, 2012, to raise not more than $645,000,000 in the aggregate. . . .”

First passed in 1997, SPLOST provides a means for school systems to meet capital improvement needs through the collection of a 1% sales tax.  SPLOST is not a new or additional tax – it is already a part of our 7% sales tax.  But the sales tax will expire in the next few months unless we ‘Locally Opt’ to keep it in place.

Since its inception, SPLOST has funded 38% of all capital projects for CSD, bringing in more than $34 million dollars. Thanks to SPLOST, CSD has:

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