47 localities will vote on sales tax for school construction, as state officials prepare to reexamine need

Voters in 47 Virginia localities will decide whether to approve a 1% sales tax to fund school construction costs in their communities this November.

Local leaders across the state raced to get the referendums on the ballot ahead of an August deadline after legislation passed this year gave communities this new route for raising funds to fix aging schools.

Now, the referendums are one of the main topics of a gathering this week of the state’s Commission on School Construction and Modernization, which is meeting for the first time in more than three years.

The local efforts come as communities face aging facilities and ballooning costs for school capital projects.

The number of cities and counties voting on the referendum reflects 38% of those newly authorized to do so. In Southwest and Southside Virginia, the communities include Floyd, Franklin, Giles, Grayson, Pulaski, Smyth and Wythe counties and the city of Martinsville.

Under a 2020 law, nine localities previously had the authority to levy the additional sales tax.

Since then, those cities and counties, which include Henry County, Danville and Pittsylvania County, have raised more than $119 million through the tax, according to reporting by the Virginia Mercury.

“The fact that 47 Virginia localities moved to put this question before their voters in the very first year of statewide authorization speaks volumes about both the need for school construction funding and the demand for additional local revenue options,” Jeremy Bennett, director of intergovernmental affairs for the Virginia Association of Counties, who helped lobby for the policy, said in a statement.

Local communities rally for referendums

Already, communities are rallying to convince voters to approve the referendum when they go to the polls.

Franklin County, where local leaders have identified more than $117 million in capital improvement needs, is hosting a town hall Wednesday to discuss the needs and the upcoming sales tax referendum.

Advocates in Prince Edward County have launched the “One for Prince Edward” campaign and have been hosting a series of town halls across the county with two more scheduled this month.

And in Richmond, two former city officials launched the first statewide advocacy group focused on the push last month.

Virginians for Modern Schools is offering voter education, messaging, coordinated outreach and other resources to communities pursuing the tax.

“Our job is to make sure no locality has to figure this out alone,” Kristen Nye, co-founder of the organization and a former Richmond City Council member, said in a statement last month. “We’re compiling toolkits and guidance for stakeholders so that they can communicate the bonding capacity of the sales tax and the significant impact it will have on local school construction projects for our children and future generations.”

Some advocates are also hinting at future efforts to push for more flexibility in the law.

The updated law currently requires revenue collected from the targeted sales tax to be used for future school construction or renovation projects; and some localities in Northern Virginia can use it towards public transportation infrastructure projects.

Prince Edward County Administrator Doug Stanley previously said that he’d like to see collected revenue be able to be used to pay off existing debts communities have incurred when funding capital projects.

Bennett said he could see potential appetite for greater flexibility within current restrictions as the law is ultimately about what works best for local communities.

“Ultimately, this is about local choice, each community can determine whether the option makes sense for its needs, and voters have the final say,” he said.

Revival of the state commission on school construction

The status of the local referendums is one of the main topics on the agenda for a Tuesday meeting of the state’s Commission on School Construction and Modernization.

This will be the first meeting of the commission, which was launched in 2021, since 2022.

It is made up of lawmakers, the state superintendent of public instruction, the president of the Virginia Board of Education, other government officials and citizens. It’s tasked with assessing school facilities and determining school construction needs, establishing best practices for school construction and identifying possible funding mechanisms.

Bennett and Josette Bulova of the Virginia Municipal League are slated to address the commission, as is Christina Berta, chief operations officer of the Virginia Department of Education.

Five years ago, the Education Department presented a report to the commission that laid out the state’s school facilities needs. The 2021 report found that more than half of the state’s public school buildings surveyed were at least half a century old and estimated that nearly $25 billion was needed at that time to fully replace these aging facilities.

Much of the commission’s work ultimately paved the way for the state’s investment in school capital projects, including through passage of the 1% sales tax law.

The commission is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. on Tuesday in Richmond. You can find the agenda and a livestream link here.