ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995 TAG: 9512130084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
note: below
Roanoke County's Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday to let voters decide the fate of a new 1,900-student Cave Spring High School.
Supervisors voted 4-0 - Supervisor Harry Nickens was out of town - to hold a referendum April 2 on whether the county should sell bonds to finance the $37.4 million school package.
The fact that the package includes funds for the $33.6 million high school plus capital improvements in each of the county's five magisterial districts isn't coincidental. School Board members expressed concern early on that a bond referendum with only Cave Spring High School would have difficulty winning voter support.
An 11th-hour request by Supervisor Lee Eddy got architectural and engineering work on an Oak Grove Elementary School addition added to the list. The school is in Eddy's Windsor Hills district.
One issue that remained unresolved at the joint work session between the Board of Supervisors and the School Board is how the county will finance the projects. That concerned Eddy, who also questioned how the capital investment will affect school salaries and future construction projects.
It has been estimated that repaying the bonds would take a 3-cent increase in the county's real estate tax rate, which works out to an additional $30 per year on a house valued at $100,000. Such an increase would generate about $1 million annually.
School Board member Michael Stovall put it this way: The cost of a gallon of milk a month is what it will take to fund the bond package.
Johnson pointed out that a real estate tax rate increase is not the only way to come up with the money. Revenues from car decals, entertainment taxes and a possible transportation district are other funding possibilities. A transportation district would let local governments levy a 2-cents per $1 tax on gasoline. Such a tax would generate about $485,000 in the county.
However, in a November discussion of the transportation district, supervisors instructed staff to negotiate a revenue-neutral agreement, under which real estate taxes would be reduced to offset the revenue the gas tax would raise.
"I don't know how the funding will go. In the worst-case scenario it may have to go with a 3-cents tax increase. We don't know that yet, but if it did, aren't our kids worth 8 cents a day?" said Board of Supervisors Chairman Fuzzy Minnix, who represents the Cave Spring district.
Those funding questions will be addressed when the county begins work on its 1996-1997 budget.
The county will begin its pitch for the bond issue immediately through civic league meetings, PTAs and the government access channel.
"We'll be on their doorstep tomorrow to help put forward this education campaign," said Superintendent of Schools Deanna Gordon.
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