DALTON, Ga. — Good schools are very important to recruiting new businesses and attracting young professionals, says Rob Bradham, president of the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce.

Bradham recalled that when he was under consideration for the chamber presidency two years ago, officials offered to bring his wife down from Chattanooga and take her anywhere she wanted. She asked to see some of the local schools.

Bradham spoke Wednesday morning at the Dalton Golf and Country Club during a Share the Vision Breakfast hosted by the Leadership Dalton-Whitfield Alumni Association. The breakfast focused on the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) referendum that will be on the March 21 special election ballot.

Bradham said because schools are so important to economic development, the chamber’s executive board has voted to support the ESPLOST referendum on the March ballot.

The current five-year ESPLOST that is split between the two local school systems based on enrollment numbers expires on Dec. 31 of this year and is expected to collect $81 million, which has been far below projections, according to numbers released by Dalton Public Schools.

The new five-year ESPLOST, if approved by voters, would begin on Jan. 1, 2018, and would be expected to collect $98 million, with Whitfield County Schools receiving $61 million and Dalton Public Schools $37 million. Because enrollment in Dalton schools has grown and enrollment in county schools has plateaued and is even trending downward, Dalton Public Schools would see its percentage of the tax rise from 34.62 percent to 37.7 percent if the tax is approved by voters.

Whitfield County Schools Superintendent Judy Gilreath noted that if the ESPLOST passes it will be the county’s fifth. Whitfield County has had an ESPLOST in place for all but one of the last 20 years.

Whitfield County Schools’ top priorities for its share of the ESPLOST are replacing North Whitfield Middle School and Valley Point Middle School, which were built more than 50 years ago as high schools, with two new schools that would be built on the same campuses.

Gilreath said she has been asked if it would be less costly to renovate the schools rather than build new ones. She said renovation, rather than building a new school on another part of the campus, would disrupt classes and require the school system to have to acquire mobile classrooms to put the students in while the work is being done.

Dalton Public Schools’ top priority is “adding to, renovating, repairing, improving, equipping and furnishing existing school buildings or other buildings or facilities useful or desirable in connection therewith, including, but not limited to Brookwood School, City Park School, Roan School and Dalton High School.”

Dalton Public Schools Superintendent Jim Hawkins said the proposed work is similar to what has been done at other schools in the system. He said putting in LED lights and replacing aging heating and air conditioning units saves energy and reduces the costs of operating schools.

Projections totaling nearly $40 million in capital projects have been placed on the priority list — including $10 million for a new gym at Dalton High — but officials have admitted the tax is not likely to fund lower-priority projects on the list.

Hawkins noted the gym isn’t just used for basketball games but also for physical education.

“We are crowded in our classrooms, and we are crowded in our gym,” he said.

Local businessman Chris Shiflett of the Citizens for Education Taskforce, a group of local residents who are supporting passage of the ESPLOST, said that if the ESPLOST isn’t approved the burden of funding the school systems’ capital needs will fall on those who pay the property tax.