CENTRE — In advance of tonight’s public forum at the ROC to discuss the possibility of a one-cent sales tax to fund the Career and Technology Center, Cherokee County Superintendent of Schools Brian Johnson said he hopes the County Commission will seriously consider the idea. 

Melvyn Salter first floated the proposal Friday at a pair of public forums at the ROC. Salter suggested the Commission pass a temporary tax that would raise the sales tax to nine cents and generate around $1.7 million a year in exchange for a list of concessions from the Board -- among them a promise to keep the Career and Tech Center open for the proposed four-year life of the tax, setting aside $50,000 annually for equipment upgrades at the school, and agreeing to drop the Board's lawsuit against the county over annual operating expenses. 

Salter also requested that the Board agree to stop accepting a portion of the royalty funds the county receives from the Three Corners Landfill, streamline the process of requesting discretionary funds from individual commissioners for items such as sports equipment and travel expenses, and hold annual meetings at every school campus in the future to keep parents and teachers better informed of impending budget decisions. 

Johnson said he’s ready to work with the Commission to try and find a solution to the Board’s funding shortage. Combined cuts in the state education budget, known as proration, have totaled 23.5 percent since 2008, resulting in a loss of $5.6 million to the local school system. 

“I think a lot of people think the Commission and the Board of Education are at opposite ends of the spectrum, and that’s not true,” Johnson told The Post. “We’ve been working closely with them and they’ve helped us in the past. I appreciate them even looking at the possibility of helping us out in the future.” 

Johnson said he didn’t hear any items in Salter’s proposal that he would not be willing to at least consider. 

“I don’t think there’s anything that has been proposed that is just totally off the mark,” Johnson said. “We might have to run a couple of them through our legal department just to be sure, but everything seems to be something that we can work out.” 

Johnson said if the Commission decides to impose the sale tax, there is still time to revise the Board’s reduction in force plan and allow the Career and Tech Center to open for the 2011-12 school year. 

“Starting today, on a very short time frame, we start taking action to get ready for the opening of the schools,” Johnson said Tuesday morning. “It’s always hectic right before school starts, but it’s something we can do.” 

Johnson said he hopes the public will attend tonight’s meeting and support the idea of the sales tax, because working with the Commission may be the only chance that remains to keep the Career and Tech Center to be open when school starts Aug. 8. 

“I think anything we can do, working with another government agency here in our county, is something we’d be more than willing to do,” Johnson said. “I know this is a very difficult decision for the county commissioners to make.” 

Johnson took exception to charges he said he has heard that the Board has not been a good steward of the county’s allotment of education dollars since proration first hit the state in 2008. He said it is only because of sound financial management that the problem of inadequate funding is just now appearing in Cherokee County. 

“One thing I have been trying to get across is that if we hadn’t built up the reserve that we’ve had to dip into since 2008, this would have happened three years ago,” Johnson said. “It was happening three years ago at other places in the state. Even though we started cutting corners and saving then, we still had to dip into the reserve from time to time.” 

This year, Johnson said, the reserve had dwindled to less than half of one month’s operating expenses. And then the state cut another $800,000 from the school system’s 2011-12 budget. 

“To stay financially sound, we have to make tough decisions,” Johnson said. “We realize the education system in our county is stronger with the Career and Tech Center open. Unfortunately, we’ve got to find ways to save a lot of money, and closing the Career and Tech Center and reducing personnel is the only way to do that.” 

Johnson paused, then added: “The budget problems that so many other systems in the state have had to deal with have finally reached Cherokee County.”