Opp Mayor Becky Bracke confirmed this week that she will ask the Opp Council to repeal one-half of its one-cent education sales tax in coming weeks.

The move will be timed to coincide with Covington County’s new assessment of a countywide half-cent tax for education, she said.

Initially,

When county officials began discussing the possibility of adding the new sales tax – which it approved this month and will begin collecting in January – it wasn’t immediately clear if any of the city’s education tax could be removed, as it is pledged toward to repay the bond funding used to build Opp Elementary School in 2007. Last year, the Opp City Council refinanced the bond issue, but the sales tax remains tied to the bond.

And that was concerning for local officials, because with the new education tax, and a sales tax Opp passed in June to support operations at Mizell Memorial Hospital, come January sales taxes collected on purchases made in Opp would have totaled 10.5 percent.

“We have been talking with the bond attorneys, and hopefully, we have this worked out,” Bracke said. “We want to do all we can to promote the local economy.”

She said the city cannot afford to repeal the tax, unless it is done at the same time as the new tax is imposed.

Because the county tax must be disbursed proportionately, based on the numbers of students in each school system, Opp City Schools will receive approximately 22 percent of the proceeds, expected to net $450,000 for Opp. Opp’s one-cent sales tax for education generated $560,000 last year, which means a net increase for the city’s schools.