School Summit - archive
Excerpt…
While more school nurses would be great, this seemed a diversion from the main point of the summit — which was what? Apparently, over a dozen politicians spent an entire day listening to presentations some of them could have given themselves in order to build support for a real estate transfer tax, and for the 20 percent increase in funding the schools are seeking.
The Charlotte Chamber’s education group has been studying the transfer tax option behind closed doors since last year under the guidance of school board member and VP of the Chamber’s education group Kit Kramer. If the transfer tax became reality, one percent of a home’s value would pass to the county every time it is bought or sold. Creative Loafing’s attempts to get minutes from the Chamber meetings on the tax were rebuffed by Kramer.
Excerpt…
At the moment, it appears the school board will be petitioning the county to put $600 million in bonds for school construction on the ballot this fall, which would ultimately be paid for with property tax revenue unless the county gets a transfer tax.
Taxpayers can’t afford to keep paying the bills for all of this school construction, said School Board member Vilma Leake in support of the transfer tax, despite the fact that those who buy and sell homes here are the same taxpayers who already pay school bond bills.
Whatever the case, there is some rumbling that the bonds, which will likely include funds for several suburban schools the school board has put off building, could face political friction. Suburban school building has been a political hot potato since 1998, when the courts ended forced busing for racial integration here. Some local leaders believe that more schools in the suburbs will lead to more racial segregation of both urban and suburban schools.
At the summit, school board member Louise Woods questioned the need for large numbers of new schools, suggesting that trailers were educationally adequate facilities, a line of thinking guaranteed to enrage suburban parents who feel they’ve waited their turn while the system built schools in less populous central and middle ring areas of the county.
Though the school system has yet to offer an official bond proposal, Democratic County Commissioner Norman Mitchell, who did not attend the summit, is threatening to lobby his fellow Democrats not to support the bonds if Republicans on the commission complain too loudly about the tax hike Democrats say they’ll need to pay for increasing school costs.
Building the schools suburbanites and ultimately Republicans want will add more debt service to the budget, Mitchell says, which will cause more tax hikes, so it is disingenuous for Republicans to advocate for the bonds but against tax hikes, then turn around and blame the Democrats for the tax hikes next year when commissioners are up for election.
“They (the Republicans) are complaining about tax increases and about school overcrowding,” said Mitchell. “Is that fair? They have used tax increases to beat us over the head for years. (Democrat Commissioners) Parks Helms, Wilhelmenia Rembert and Jennifer Roberts could be voted out because of the tax increase.
CL site is down. Creative Loafing April 27, 2005
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