Board hears of 1% sales tax, parade cancellation

PC Public SchoolsBy MIKE WILLIAMS

Patriot Publishing

Pulaski County’s top two school officials appeared Monday night before the Board of Supervisors to discuss the 1 percent sales tax referendum. However, cancellation of the school system’s Homecoming Parade grabbed the spotlight first.

“Before we talk about the 1 percent sales tax option referendum, I just want to commend the Pulaski County staff. They were amazing tonight with everything that we had to do with the parade,” said School Superintendent Rob Graham.

“It was a difficult, difficult decision (to cancel the parade), but law enforcement, first responders, parks and rec, faculty and staff, our administrators, everybody came together and worked very, very well. I don’t know how many people were out there. There was a lot as I was going through, but we got everybody home or back to the school or back where they needed to go in less than 20 minutes, and I think that’s just absolutely phenomenal, and speaks highly about the character of this of this community.”

The parade apparently was canceled out of caution over threats that were made against it over social media last week and the day of the parade.

“I mean it’s terrible that something like that has to happen, but it was handled with grace and professionalism, and I couldn’t be more proud,” said Graham.

About the Nov. 3 referendum, Graham said he sees the opportunity as a “game changer.”

“I do feel like it’s a game changer for our students, for our staff, faculty, and school community. I know when you bring up the word tax, the chills that that can bring up in a community’s spine, but the fact is, this is a game changer for our school division.”

With that said, Graham added he did want to highlight the current capital funding plan between the schools and county, which provides retired school debt service funds to go with unused school funds each year to pay for capital improvements.

“It is very rare to have that type of plan, and it has worked extremely well. And if the citizens do decide not to approve this (1 percent sales tax), it’ll continue to work very well. And we are grateful for that. It’s done so many projects for us, and I think that’s why our school system has the best schools, facilities, not only safety-wise, functionality-wise, esthetically pleasing, but that is why we have some of the best in in Virginia. To have seven schools like we do, the way they they operate is fantastic,” Graham added.

Graham told the supervisors the updated capital improvement list, which can be seen on the school system’s website at pcva.us is, “$87.5 million worth of needs, and that’s everything from a strong renovation at Pulaski County High School to an electric sign upgrade at Riverlawn Elementary School. Those are all really needed projects. Seventy  million dollars of that is at the high school, and there’s a reason for that. It’s the largest facility that we do have in Pulaski. It has the most square feet. It was built as an open concept, and when you built an open concept in the ‘70s, that’s not as an expensive school as a traditional school would be. So, to actually build a school of that size in today’s economy would be around $200 million dollars, and that’s something that we definitely don’t want to put on our citizens. We feel like we could do an outstanding job renovating that facility to make it modernized and innovative, and even safer than it already is.”

“The current plan gives us about $1.5 million dollars for our capital outlay fund. If the citizens pass this referendum, it’s $5 million a year for 20 years.”

Graham noted that while the current capital improvement plan has worked well, things could change in the future with new school or county boards that could end the current agreement.

“This legislation specifically states that for 20 years we would get that one percent sales tax going to all school capital needs.”

School Board Chairman Jake Price said he feels the county is fortunate that the school board and board of supervisors have such a strong working relationship right now.

“That’s been a great asset for the three years that I’ve been on the board. We came to the agreement to use the retired debt for capital improvement, and that’s been a good thing. And we’ve taken that amount of money, and I feel like we’ve been good stewards of it, and used that in appropriate and really helpful ways. But that’s less than $2 million a year, and in a couple years that number could rise as other debts fall off. But today it’s $2 million a year. If the referendum passes, that’s $5 million for 20 years. That’s absolutely guaranteed. And to me, I think that the $5 million is a jumping-on point. That number is probably going to rise as more businesses come into our community. We have an opportunity to collect more sales taxes,” Price reasoned.

“You know the other thing I want our citizens to understand is we have great relationships, but these MOUs are only as strong as the relationships of the boards are, and there’s an election next year. We don’t know who’s going to be sitting where, and these plans could be brought back up and changed.”

 

County Administrator Jonathan Sweet said passage of the sales tax would be important to the county’s real estate tax rate.

“Because you don’t have to go to that well to make important capital improvements, safety improvements, maintenance, etc. to our school facilities,” Sweet said. “So, what it does is it stabilizes our real estate. In some cases, it allows us to lower the real estate because you don’t have to to use that to make these strategic investments, these important investments in our children.

“So paradoxically, you increase sales tax one percent, and what you do is effectively prevent increases in real estate and/or lower real estate. So, an increase in one tax is potentially a decrease in another. And sales tax is not just paid by Pulaski County folks, but it is shared (by anyone spending money in the county).

“So, it is a way to prevent increases in in real estate, make strategic investments, and remain competitive with all the school divisions around the state who are choosing to do this.”

Several surrounding school divisions this year are voting on a 1 percent sales tax like Pulaski County since the state made the tax optional during the last legislative session.

During the supervisor comments portion of the meeting, Robinson District Supervisor Jeff Reeves strongly endorsed passage of the sales tax.

“I wish everyone would just remember that this 1 percent proposed sales tax is a consumption tax, and it’s going to be borne by not just Pulaski County citizens,” Reeves said.

“And the more tourism with the lake and the Sportsplex and interstate traffic that we have, it’s going to go to support our schools, which will lower the tax burden on our residents. I think it’s a net gain for Pulaski County citizens based on the trajectory of our tourism and assets, and I just hope everyone takes that into consideration when they vote.”