Hernando County School Board will be moving forward in their efforts to put a half cent sales tax on the ballot either jointly with another referendum or through a special election. Back in November 2014 the School Board joined with the Board of County Commissioners in the Penny for Projects Sales Tax Referendum which voters rejected.
The school board thinks if the issue is presented to voters in a different way as a continuation of the current tax rate (6.5%) then the voters may be more agreeable towards it. School Board Chairman Gus Guadagnino said that “I truly believe that if we were by ourselves…we were going to go out there and tell the citizens of Hernando County don’t change anything just leave everything in place, and we would have $8 million a year. That is an entirely different campaign than to go out there and say if you want your school to get the money that they need, you need to give us the money for the roads that we want to build.” He continued, “I know the importance of infrastructure but building streets and roads on the back of our students was entirely wrong to do.”
Costs could stretch up to $300,000 for a special election. The Supervisor of Elections estimates the cost of just printing the ballots to be around $200,000. It would take another $50K to $60K to provide the training for polling workers and manning the polling places. The most cost efficient route would be to attach it to another election.
Other costs would include advertising and public outreach. The possibility of creating a PAC (political action committee) was discussed in order to offset advertising and marketing costs or some of the costs of the Supervisor of Elections. Mr. Alfonso clarified that a PAC would have to be informational only, not advocating a position.
After the school board adopts a resolution to hold an election, they forward it to the Department of Revenues for them to approve. Then they would coordinate with the Board of County Commissioners in how they bring the matter to the voters, either in a special election or with other items. Then they pass it on to the Supervisor of Elections. It would take about 6 months for the matter to get on the ballot after a resolution is passed by the school board.
It’s interesting to note that a discussion arose about possible litigation if the County Commission did not work with the school board to set the election. Board member Matt Foreman cited a 1998 situation in which the Attorney General said the Board of County Commissioners has an obligation to work with the School Board to set an election within a mutually agreeable time frame. Matt Foreman stated, ”If we do move in that direction there is some justification for us to apply some level of pressure to get it handled expeditiously if we thought that wasn’t where it was going.” Dennis Alfonso, school board counsel, is aware of at least one district, Clay County, that had to get into litigation with the Board of County Commissioners. The Circuit Court judge did rule in favor of the school board in that situation.
Susan Duval said that we need to move forward on this and get a detailed cost analysis, a definitive timeline, and voting trends. The thought of losing $7-9 million a year is incomprehensible. She believes it’s possible to get it turned around.
Chairman Gus Guadagnino says one way or another we have to take care of our school system. Guadagnino admitted that they did make mistakes along the way but did not think the school system and students should be punished. He says they should learn from those mistakes and move on. He believes they have to do everything possible to keep our educational system competitive on a global market. “When you start talking $300,000 against a ten year period of $85 million… I’ll roll the dice” said Guadagnino.
Discussion did not touch on how the half cent sales tax money would be used. The previous half cent sales tax, approved by voters in 2004, was utilized for new construction. Under the Penny for Projects tax referendum, voters were told that the majority of the half cent sales tax ($62M of the $85M) would go towards the One to One tablet initiative that would help meet state requirements. This “pitch” which was seen as “frivolous spending” by Brevard County School District Representative Michele Irwin. Honesty will be an important factor in determining the outcome of this election.
The Supervisor of Elections will attend a workshop on February 3rd to discuss options for the election.