Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 29, 1995 TAG: 9511290081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The question the county's Board of Supervisors and School Board grappled with Tuesday was how to pay for the proposed 1,900-student, $33 million school.
At a joint work session between supervisors and School Board members, County Administrator Elmer Hodge offered a few solutions. Two out of three of those called for a real estate tax increase.
The first, which he called a "bare-bones approach," would require a 2-cent real estate tax increase and a commitment to forgo any additional capital projects until the year 2001. That doesn't include projects to which the board has already committed itself, such as the Glenvar Middle School project, Hodge said.
The other scenario called for an increase of between 2 cents and 5 cents in the $1.13 real estate tax rate to keep the county operating comfortably, Hodge said.
The third option is to use money in the county's reserve fund to make the annual debt payments. That wouldn't require a tax increase, but "we think it would take virtually all of the contingency fund," Hodge said.
Supervisor Harry Nickens, who said there was just $30,000 in the county's reserve fund when he came on board 13 years ago, said he doesn't favor wiping out the $7 million in the fund. He said he doesn't want to see a real estate tax rate increase, either.
He's looking for "a more creative solution."
To avoid anything more than a 5-cent tax increase to pay for the school, the county needs to come up with $5 million and the School Board needs to find another $5 million. However, where that money will come from remains to be seen.
By 2001, the county's current debt payment will decrease by $2 million a year. That money then could be used to pay off the school bonds.
A 2-cent increase on the real estate tax rate would generate about $700,000 in revenue, Supervisor Lee Eddy said.
But the debt payments on the school will be between $3 million and $4 million a year, and Eddy questions where the remaining money will come from.
For that reason, Eddy, who supported building two small schools instead of one large school, said he is "going to reserve judgment, until I see some more data."
If supervisors agree to let voters decide the project's fate, a countywide referendum would be held in May. But school officials fear that a bond issue with funds only for a new Cave Spring High School might have limited support in other parts of the county.
So the package the School Board initially put together included the $33 million for the new high school and $7 million for technology improvements at other schools
But the board might have to reduce the amount tagged for technology and include other projects, such as a $1.6 million addition to Burlington Elementary School, because it has learned that there may be legal restrictions on the amount of technology funds included in a bond issue, said School Board Chairman Jerry Canada.
Nickens said that fears of being rebuffed at the polls are not unfounded.
On Election Day, he said, he took an informal poll of Vinton voters, and at three out of four precincts, the people opposed spending $33 million on a new Cave Spring High School.
However, Nickens and Chairman Fuzzy Minnix said that can be overcome by educating the voters.
If voters are educated about the "critical need" for a new school, they will support selling the bonds, Minnix said. "I don't believe the people of Roanoke County are willing to deprive an education to children for $20 a year" - what a 2-cent tax increase would amount to on a $100,000 home.
And if they do reject spending the money?
"Don't talk like that," Minnix chided.
The School Board, which has chosen a 30-acre school site on Merriman Road, will convene Dec. 7 to finish its proposal and identify areas for savings.
It will meet again with supervisors Dec. 12. Supervisors will then decide how to fund the project and whether to let voters be the final judge.
Staff writer Joel Turner contributed to this story.
by CNB