Voters across Virginia rejected efforts this election cycle to raise sales taxes in their communities to pay for school construction.
Forty-seven cities and counties had referendums on the ballot this year to implement an additional 1% sales tax dedicated specifically to school construction and renovation projects. Voters in 32 communities rejected the measure.
The measure passed in 30%, or 14, of the localities where it was on the ballot.
In the city of Martinsville, the contest remains too close to call.
There, the referendum was leaning toward approval according to Tuesday night’s preliminary results from the state Department of Elections — but with a razor-thin margin of five votes.
Registrar Sara Workman said Wednesday that there are still 40 provisional ballots to be counted and an unknown number of mail-in ballots, postmarked on Election Day, to tally. Provisional ballots are set to be counted Monday, she said.
If a referendum passes or fails by less than 50 votes, voters can file a petition for a recount as long as they collect at least 50 signatures, according to Virginia law.
Martinsville stands to gain more than $2 million a year in revenue from the sales tax if it is approved, according to projections provided by the Virginia Municipal League based on data from the Virginia Department of Taxation.
The measure passed, according to preliminary results, in four localities in Southwest and Southside Virginia — Prince Edward County and the cities of Buena Vista, Lexington and Radford — mirroring a trend across the state of the measure passing in more cities than counties.
It failed in Alleghany, Floyd, Franklin, Giles, Grayson, Nottoway, Pulaski, Smyth and Wythe counties.
Franklin County Superintendent Kevin Siers was “disappointed, not surprised” by the results, he said by phone Wednesday. The measure failed there with more than 64% of voters against it.
“We knew it was going to be an uphill fight to get the referendum through. Nobody wants to be out promoting an additional tax. That’s a hard sell, even in a good environment,” he said. “It’s just something that we weren’t able to push through this election cycle.”
He believes having the referendum on the ballot with three constitutional amendments — all of which failed in Franklin County with two-thirds or more of the vote — didn’t help the school division’s cause.
“There was a large-scale campaign in the county to ‘vote no on everything,’ and I think that probably cost us some support that we might have been able to eke out otherwise. I don’t know if that may have made a difference for the referendum passing or not, but it certainly didn’t help,” Siers said.
Siers and other county officials spent weeks hosting a series of town halls and speaking to groups across the county this fall to raise awareness about the needs of school facilities.
“We are still sitting on $102 million of capital needs and no funding stream to address them,” he said. “So we will have to evaluate how we can replace the failing HVAC systems, how we can replace the roofs that are leaking, how we can upgrade our security measures that are in place at our schools that are also quickly becoming outdated and obsolete.”
Revenue from the additional 1% sales tax could have brought in more than $7 million annually in Franklin County, according to projections, in part thanks to tourists and visitors to Smith Mountain Lake and the recreation areas around it.
Now, future school division leaders and county officials will have to decide how to fund future capital needs. Siers is set to retire at the end of this school year, and county Administrator Steven Sandy is stepping down at the end of the month.
“There are just so many needs, and our funding in Franklin County to address them is so limited, that I’m afraid we’re going to have to make some very tough decisions about the future of some of our school buildings if we can’t find a way to fund the upkeep of them,” Siers said.
The sentiment was similar in Wythe County, where school officials hoped bipartisan support by both the local Democratic and Republican parties would convince voters to approve the measure.
In a statement posted to Facebook, Wythe County Public Schools Superintendent Russell Street said the school system still has $72 million in renovations to pay for.
“The school board and county will need to reassess priorities and consider possible next steps,” Street said. “Thank you to everyone who learned about the proposal, shared feedback, asked questions and participated in the election. I enjoyed meeting and speaking with all of the groups and community members over the last few months.”
He said the school division would complete a six-year comprehensive plan in the coming months and included a link to student and parent surveys that could help inform it.
Whether either locality will reconsider a dedicated sales tax is unknown at this time, but it is a possibility. Legislation passed this year gives cities and counties the authority to leverage these taxes at any time.
“Just because some localities don’t think it’s a good idea this year doesn’t preclude it from being something to be considered in the future,” Jeremy Bennett, director of intergovernmental affairs for the Virginia Association of Counties, who helped lobby for the policy, said by phone Wednesday.
The effort wasn’t approved the first time it was pitched in Pittsylvania County, which was one of the first localities to be given the authority to implement the tax, Bennett noted. A referendum was narrowly defeated in November 2021 by a 23-vote margin and then passed in 2022. Now, the tax brings in about $3.8 million each year for schools in Pittsylvania County.
He noted that other communities, such as Washington County, are already discussing or have approved holding a special election next year after local officials have had more time to raise awareness about the issue.
The mood Wednesday was more upbeat in Buena Vista, where the referendum was approved with more than 61% of the vote.
“The passage of the 1% sales tax referendum is a powerful reflection of our community’s belief in Buena Vista City Public Schools and its commitment to our students,” Superintendent Heather Ault said in an email.
“Our schools are at the heart of our city. Behind this vote are people who care deeply about our students and recognize the important role our schools play in the strength and future of Buena Vista City. This dedicated funding provides a critical path forward for addressing our school facilities needs and creating learning environments that support our students for generations to come.”
In Rappahannock County, one of the few small rural counties that passed the referendum, Superintendent Shannon Grimsley echoed Ault’s sentiment.
“This is a monumental and historic investment in our schools, and we are beyond grateful to our community for taking this step in improving our 1950s infrastructure,” she said via email.
There, the sales tax is projected to send about $1.2 million annually to the schools, which serve fewer than 800 students in grades K-12. In September, local officials shared that the county’s two school buildings need about $5.9 million in repairs and upgrades, according to reporting by the Rappahannock News.
“For a small, rural school division like ours, maintaining a safe, functional and welcoming learning environment presents unique financial challenges. This new funding opportunity offers a meaningful path toward addressing our long-term capital needs while helping to reduce our reliance on traditional borrowing and local property taxes,” Grimsley said in a letter to the community Wednesday.
Staff writer Julianna Stephenson contributed information to this report.
