CENTRE — An incendiary issue that had just about everyone in Cherokee County choosing sides in 2011 will be among the hot items on next month's primary ballots.

Last summer, faced with $1.5 million in state budget cuts, the Board of Education voted to close the Cherokee County Career and Technology Center (CTC). The Board's plan would have shuttered the CTC campus, relocated most vocational programs to other county high schools and reassigned several teachers.

After a public uproar which included a mid-July evening when dozens protested in front of the Board of Education in Centre, the County Commission interceded, approving a one-cent sales tax to keep the tech school campus open for the 2011-12 school year.

Days before, Probate Judge Melvyn Salter had been the first to publicly float the idea of a sales tax. Over the next few days commissioners Elbert St. Clair, Kimball Parker, Wade Sprouse and Carlton Teague attended several public meetings to hear input from the public. On July 28, 2011, they voted unanimously to pass a temporary tax.

Commissioners insisted on language that would allow the measure to expire after a year in order to give voters in Cherokee County an opportunity to weigh in. That chance comes March 13 during the Democratic and Republican primaries.

Superintendent Brian Johnson is up for reelection this year, but his current term doesn't expire until January 2013. So, regardless of the outcome of the March 13 primary and Nov. 6 General Election, he'll still be in charge when the time comes to prepare the budget for the next school year.

Since the sales tax went into effect Oct. 1, the Board has received three monthly checks totaling nearly $400,000, Johnson said.

“The $380,000 we have received so far from the sales tax has gone directly into the one-month reserve fund,” he said. “Based on those three checks, we are estimating that the annual income from the sales tax will be around $1.52 million.”

Johnson said in addition to restocking the reserve fund, which is required by the state Board of Education, he and the local board members plan to create a “rainy day” fund in case the referendum on the sales tax fails.

“It's probably too early to make this prediction for certain, but it's possible that one year of this sales tax will allow us to save the trade school for two years,” Johnson said.

Asked his personal thoughts, Johnson said he is prepared to write the 2012-13 budget regardless of the outcome of the vote on March 13.

“We are charged with managing the money we receive, in good times and bad,” Johnson said. “I understand that the economy is tough right now and people are hurting. We're prepared to make those decisions whether the tax passes or fails.”

One person who hopes the sales tax fails is local businessman and Tea Party member Tab Chandler.

“I was against it last July and I'm against it now,” Chandler told The Post last week. “I think it's a regressive tax on the people who can least afford it.”

Chandler added that he supports keeping the CTC open.

“Maybe we can get some revenue from raising property taxes or raising taxes on luxury items,” Chandler said. “I'm all for that. But don't put [a tax] on people who can least afford it.”

Chandler also said he is not convinced that the money the Board of Education receives now is being spent as wisely as it should be.

“If you'll check the record, there are several options [besides closing the trade school],” Chandler said. “They money is there but it's just not being appropriated right. They ought to close another school before they close the trade school.”

Retired schoolteacher Donna Oliver, who taught at the CTC until January, said there is a lack of understanding throughout the county as to just how much the sales tax means to the school system.

“It not only reopened the Career and Technology Center, it also allowed the Board of Education to rehire teachers at schools across the county,” Oliver said. “It is important for the future of our children, our county and our school system that the sales tax passes.”

The language of the referendum allows Cherokee County voters to extend the sales tax two years past its Sept. 30, 2012 expiration date. According to sample ballots provided to The Post last week, voters will be asked to choose between “for taxation” and “against taxation”.

The ballot's wording was approved by the Cherokee County probate judge's office..