Monroe County latest to seek sales tax for school funding

Adding a penny sales tax would shift the burden of paying for schools solely from property owners to more of a shared cost, according to school administrators across the metro-east.

“This is an issue that you have to understand it,” said Gina Segobiano, superintendent of Columbia School District 4, “because no one would see the word ‘tax’ on a ballot and say ‘yes.’”

The ballot referendum on Tuesday’s ballot in Monroe County would add a penny to the cost of many goods and services, raising the sales tax to 7.5 percent across much of the county. The issue already has been rejected once in Madison County, and is under consideration in St. Clair County.

Vehicles, groceries, medications and farm equipment are excluded from the increase. Information provided by Columbia School District 4 shows that rate is still below much of the metro-east: Columbia and Waterloo would have sales tax rates at 7.5 percent, if the increase is approved, while Belleville is 8.1 percent and Fairview Heights is 8.35 percent.

The added sales tax, by state law, can be used on additions and renovations, security and maintenance, as well as for debt on construction or renovation of buildings.

Any additional revenue generated can not be used for instruction, which includes salaries and textbooks, or operating costs.

Columbia and Waterloo both offered public information meetings to explain the tax, but lacked public participation “to get the buzz out,” Segobiano said.

School districts borrow money to pay for large school facility projects, which are repaid by property taxes. The tax approval could allow districts to avoid issuing such debt, or to pay down the current debt. According to literature shared by District 4, about 30 percent of sales tax revenue is from people who live outside of the county.

Columbia schools need a new HVAC system, having spent more than $200,000 in the last two years “just to keep the old system up,” Segobiano said.

Waterloo schools have already started renovation projects, said Superintendent Brian Charron, but “this money won’t even be here in time for that.”

Charron said the sales tax revenue could go instead to paying off existing debt.

“That’s the main reason we wanted to give voters an opportunity (to vote on the sales tax) ... so it doesn’t fall solely on the backs of property owners,” he said.

Waterloo has more than $50 million of debt that will be repaid over the next 16 years, which includes costs for the new high school and renovation of other buildings.

“One hundred percent of that has to be paid by property taxes (as of now),” Charron said. “That’s going to be an increasing burden.”

The districts would get an amount of money from the sales taxes based on their student enrollment numbers in the fall, according to Kelton Davis, superintendent of the Monroe-Randolph Regional Office of Education.

Based on the 2015 fall housing report, Waterloo has the most Monroe County students at a little more than 51 percent. Columbia has nearly 37 percent; Valmeyer just more than 9 percent and New Athens and Red Bud educate the remainder.

If the measure passes by a majority of voters, the tax would go into effect July 1 and schools would start receiving new sales tax revenues in October. Segobiano said Columbia would receive about $800,000 a year, and Waterloo about $1.2 million.

The statewide law allowing the penny sales tax went into effect in October 2007, and 33 counties have enacted the tax for schools so far. School district officials in St. Clair County are discussing whether to put the question on the fall ballot; an initiative in Madison County failed in 2011.

Under the law, it takes approval from public school district boards that represent more than 50 percent of the student enrollment within the county in order to put the sales tax referendum on the ballot.

School officials in St. Clair County are starting the first steps toward considering the tax and are scheduling informational meetings in their districts. They are targeting a referendum for the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

Belleville schools plan to have “community engagement” meetings about the sales tax in April, said District 201 Superientendent Jeff Dosier.

“We see it as a good opportunity to provide property tax relief,” he said. Dosier said the district anticipates around $2 million in revenue, which his district would then remove from the tax levy request. District 201 will be meeting at the elementary schools, Dosier said, as it shares a tax base with Belleville District 118.

O’Fallon District 90 had its first informational meeting in Feburary. Others scheduled are at O’Fallon District 90 on March 22, Shiloh District 85 on April 28, and possibly at Central District 104 on May 17.

This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Monroe County latest to seek sales tax for school funding."