School Board Votes 3-2 for Property Tax Increase Special Election
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Staff Report
BRADENTON – The Manatee School Board voted 3-2 at Tuesday's meeting to authorize a special election in March for a voter referendum on a one-mill increase for school property taxes.
School board members Dave Miner, Charlie Kennedy and Gina Messenger voted in favor of the motion, while John Colon and Scott Hopes voted against it. After expressing reservations on the issue at previous meetings, Messenger provided the swing vote to finally give Miner and Kennedy, who'd long championed the referendum, a slim majority.
"I have a 2-year-old in the school district," said Messenger. "I want our highly-qualified teachers to stay with us. I believe we must be competitive."
Miner and Kennedy have promoted the tax increase as a way to make the district more competitive with Sarasota County, which has a long record of producing better academic results, which Miner and Kennedy attribute to having more money to pay teachers.
Manatee voters agreed to give the district a 15 year extension on the optional half-cent sales tax in November, but many were dismayed when the district still said there was not enough money for a meaningful teacher pay increase and that it would still need to saddle taxpayers with $150 million in additional bond debt to pay for three new schools it will need to build north of the river to accommodate growth after nine years of failing to collect development impact fees.
If the district waited until the scheduled November 2018 election to have the referendum, it would not come at an additional cost. However, a special election will come with a price tag of more than a quarter of a million dollars, while it is almost certain that voter participation will be lower.
The county commission tried a similar tactic with its proposed indigent care tax in 2013. The 13 percent of voters who turned out, many of whom saw it as an attempt to slip one past the public, turned it away nearly 2-1.
Colon argued that having the special election in March wasn't an up-front tactic.
"If you truly want the county to vote on it, have the vote in November when everyone is here" he said.
Hopes, the board's newest member, repeated his concerns that the district hasn’t made a complete effort to see where they could save money, or presented a detailed plan to the public, demonstrating true need, spending intentions or measurable goals to which it could be held accountable were the investment to be made.
If passed, the tax increase would give the district approximately $30 million more in funding each year, in addition to the approximately $25 million in additional funding it will receive from the half-cent sales tax.
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