Believe it or not, there is a county-wide decision to be made next Tuesday, March 19, which will affect your pocketbooks for five years between 2015 and 2019.

The voters will have to decide whether to renew or reject a special 1 percent sales tax for special projects known as the education SPLOST.

In last Sunday’s edition, our reporter Danielle Everson wrote a comprehensive piece on the issue (if you missed it, you can see it at CovNews.com) and she has another in-depth piece in today’s paper.

We’re surprised about the lack of energy that’s been put forth by community leaders to ensure the passage of the education SPLOST given its importance to the county’s school system in a time of greatly dwindling revenues.

As with many county and city government SPLOSTs, we have a feeling education SPLOSTs votes are held in a special election by themselves in March strategically to reduce the number of general anti-tax voters who make their way to the poll.

While there’s no reason to have uninformed voters vote down something just because it’s another tax, we’d prefer to see the school system hold this vote during a general election and really prove to the voters why it’s needed, rather than spending the money on a special election.

Regardless, as with every election, we urge you to take a few minutes of your time this week during early voting or next Tuesday to cast your ballot.

Either way, this tax will affect you, so have your say; it’s a privilege that many in this county have died to protect.