Washington County voters may get to decide in April whether to increase the sales tax to help fund school improvements after the county’s board of supervisors voted Tuesday to ask a circuit court judge to order a referendum.
Prior to the 5-2 vote, a public hearing drew more than two hours of debate by residents, though most were more concerned about talk of a possible merger of two county high schools.
If approved, the 1% sales tax would add new revenue to the county’s coffers that, by state law, would go toward school construction projects.
The extra tax is a tool approved by state lawmakers earlier this year that 47 other localities will vote on in November.
The special election would be held April 6. Derek Lyall, the county’s director of elections, has said it will likely cost the county around $38,000 to $45,000. It would not have cost extra to hold the referendum in November alongside the general election, but the request would have had to be made by mid-August.
The court order for the referendum would have to come at least 81 days before the April special election.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Washington County Public Schools Superintendent Keith Perrigan said time is of the essence. Delaying the referendum until November 2027 could result in $5 million in extra deferred maintenance costs by the time the tax is in place, he said.
Perrigan also noted that if other localities pass their own referendums a couple of months from now, contractors will be in high demand for new projects. A pool of state funds meant specifically for school construction grants may also become competitive to get, he said.
“I recognize that a 1% sales tax is not a decision to be taken lightly,” Perrigan said. “I do not typically support tax increases. However, given the circumstances, we must have an honest conversation about how we will address facility needs.”
The tax increase could raise $200 million over two decades, according to Perrigan. A July study conducted by Wise-based Thompson & Litton outlined about $200 million in mechanical, electrical and plumbing needs across the county’s 15 schools and the career and technical education center in Abingdon.
The supervisors held a July public hearing on whether to seek a November referendum. But board members said they needed more time to figure out where additional tax revenue would go, and they ended up tabling the discussion until December. Earlier this month, the board voted to bring the issue back onto the agenda again.
Supervisors Randy Pennington, Lee Brannon, Charlie Hargis, Saul Hernandez and board Chairman Dwayne Ball voted in favor of putting the sales tax on the ballot during Tuesday’s meeting.
“It’s not fair for seven people to tell the whole county that you can’t vote for something,” Pennington said during the meeting. “It’s not fair for us seven to defeat that. It’s not fair.”
Supervisors Phillip McCall and David Matlock voted against it.
Matlock, who represents an area encompassing the town of Damascus, pointed to several dozen people who showed up with concerns about where the extra money would be spent as apprehension mounts about possible school consolidation plans. Many of them donned tomato-red T-shirts to show their support for Holston High School, which was mentioned in the study of county school building needs as a potential candidate for consolidation with Patrick Henry High School, near Glade Spring.
The county is not ready to move forward with a vote on a new tax until there’s a clear plan for how the money will be spent, Matlock said during the meeting.
“I think we need to slow this down,” he said. “The intensity and speed at which this is being pushed is unnecessary.”
Many cities and counties will have the issue on their November ballots, he said, but two-thirds of Virginia localities will not.
The school consolidation issue dominated the discussion during the public hearing period of the meeting.
Several Damascus residents said they view the two issues as connected, since the extra money could be planned for building a new school for Patrick Henry and Holston students — something they don’t want to happen. Both schools have declining enrollment.
A few Holston students said they prefer a small school, where they know almost everyone and their teachers pay close attention to them. Parents said the lack of information about a plan for new funds troubled them, and they didn’t want their kids to go to a larger school.
Albert Howard, a 13-year-old student at Damascus Middle School, said Perrigan spoke to his classmates and promised them new football fields at a new school. That felt like a carrot-and-stick maneuver, Howard said, waving a plastic sparkly carrot to demonstrate.
“If we have to consolidate, you will erase another rural school,” he said. “If we lose Holston High, we lose so much more than what a large school can ever offer.”
Consolidating the schools was not on the Tuesday agenda and has not been scheduled for discussion or a vote. In early September, school officials released a question-and-answer document saying that “no decisions have been made regarding the future of Holston High School, Patrick Henry High School or any other individual school.”
Still, the uncertainty is frustrating for Sarah Steele, a Damascus resident and parent. She said during the meeting that the school consolidation issue and the tax referendum were “very much intertwined” for families where she lives.
“How can you ask the taxpayers to approve new tax revenue before they are given the complete picture of what they are actually being asked to fund?” Steele said. “We are literally spending taxpayer’s money to pay for the opportunity to tax ourselves even further.”
According to the facilities improvement study, if the two high schools remain open, Patrick Henry would need about $16 million in improvements, and Holston would need about $13.3 million.
Tuesday’s vote was not about school consolidation or even the extra tax, said Ball. It was about putting a measure on the ballot, he said.
“Some board members here may quite likely vote tonight to do this, and at the ballot box vote no,” Ball said. “That would be our prerogative.”
