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Panel Pitches Schools Plan: Property Tax Could Pay for Buildings

Posted on: Wednesday, 10 May 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Ryan Teague Beckwith and T. Keung Hui, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

May 10--RALEIGH -- A Wake committee on school growth recommended Tuesday that the county's property tax rate be raised 10 cents to pay for school construction.

That would be about a $150 annual increase for the owner of a $150,000 home.

The money is needed to meet immediate school needs, said Tom Oxholm, a former school board member who is on the 11-member committee. It is part of a task force on growth appointed by county commissioners that met Tuesday at the RBC Center.

The tax increase would raise about $70 million a year, which could be used to issue $700 million in debt. With the $625 million the county can issue under the current tax rate, that sum could pay for about $1.3 billion in school bonds.

The school board is considering a $998 million spending plan.

The committee did not explicitly endorse putting the larger number on the ballot. Nor did it address converting schools to year-round calendars, in which student vacations are staggered.

"The use of year-round calendars does help control costs, but our committee was not ready to recommend that all schools be year-rounds," Oxholm said later.

Still, Oxholm said the committee was swayed by figures presented by school officials earlier this year, which included a $1.3 billion option. The school board cut the plan after a poll by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce showed voter support was weak.

Regardless, Oxholm said it was the correct number.

"The amount of the school bond shouldn't be shaped on a perception that's being molded by poll results. It should be done based on what's needed," he said.

School board members, who met Tuesday to work on the spending plan, stood behind keeping the bond at just under $1 billion. They said that is the best way to get a November bond issue passed.

"What we have to go with is what the public is willing to approve, not what this committee thinks," said Carol Parker, vice chairwoman of the school board.

The district might convert 50 or more elementary schools to the year-round calendar in 2007. It is a step that would save $150 million because year-round schools can hold more students than traditional schools.

Chuck Dunlevy, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, said the community needs to view the conversions as part of a long-term strategy.

"I hope you're not thinking of elementary conversion as only a solution for overcrowding in '07-'08," Dunlevy said. "This is our basic strategy for meeting our enrollment growth as we double our enrollment over the next 20 years."

Dunlevy said the public shouldn't think county schools will return to a traditional calendar anytime soon.

"I hear people asking, 'When are you going back?' " Dunlevy said. "Based on our enrollment growth, I don't see us going back."

School board member Susan Parry said it might be 17 years before the schools could switch back.

The school board is scheduled to have a final vote on its spending plan Tuesday. It would then be up to county commissioners to decide whether to put it on the November ballot.

The school panel's recommendations went before the overall task force on growth, which has 65 members. The larger group will make a final report to county commissioners in June. It may not include all of the suggestions.

In its discussion, the school panel focused on the next decade, though the larger task force is looking at the next 25 years. Aside from the tax increase, the school group made several long-term proposals:

* Increase the number of charter schools in Wake County.

* Partner with private developers to build schools more cheaply.

* Charge a 1-cent local sales tax and a 1 percent real-estate transfer tax for school construction.

The reaction from the broader group was mixed.

Joe Freddoso, director of site operations for Cisco Systems, said the proposals were bold.

"I applaud all of you for taking a courageous stance," he said.

But Steve Stroud, a real-estate developer, said the group had failed by not recommending tax credits or vouchers to allow students to attend private schools, as his two children did.

"If we're running a quality educational system, then the public schools wouldn't fear private schools," he said.

The panel itself was divided. Two members issued a dissenting report that called for cost-cutting measures before any spending increases.

In the dissenting report, Wake Forest businessman Bob Luddy and John Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, argued for smaller community schools, more charter schools and tax credits and vouchers for private schools.

"Until we face the issues of cost and quality, I'm opposed to any tax increases," Luddy said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

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Source: The News & Observer

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