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THOMAS C. TOBINNo decision has been made, but the Pinellas School Board sees the increase as a likely way to avoid cuts and raise pay.
LARGO - The Pinellas School Board appears ready to ask voters for a property tax hike that would pay for teacher raises and prevent further budget cuts.
In a tense, six-hour workshop devoted mostly to the proposed referendum, the board took no official vote Thursday. But six of seven members informally agreed to make a final decision at their March 9 meeting. A majority strongly favors the referendum.
The board did not agree on the tax amount, though most discussion focused on an increase of $1 for every $1,000 assessed valuation. For a $150,000 home with a $25,000 homestead exemption, the tax would come to an extra $125 each year.
The tax would raise $50-million annually for four years, then the district would have to ask voters to renew it.
The board informally agreed that a thorough review of its finances was necessary before asking the public for more money. But members sparred for hours over who should conduct the probe and how deep it should go.
By the end of a grinding, contentious day, a plan emerged.
The district will commission a broad range of Pinellas business leaders to rifle through its books and fire questions at the budget staff. At the same time, the board will conduct a review of district finances - an exercise that will go much deeper than annual budget deliberations.
The board also agreed informally that it would present the referendum to the public as a measure that would pay for teacher raises and "maintain" district operations at their current level.
Driving the debate was a recent poll by the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association, the local teachers union. The poll found that half of the county's likely voters in November supported a tax, but most did not trust the district to spend tax money wisely.
Board members have not decided when a referendum would be held, but they are moving on a timeline that would place it on the Nov. 2 ballot. Some were persuaded by Jade Moore, director of the union, who said the poll showed that registered Democrats and no-party voters would be the strongest supporters of a tax increase.
Democrats are expected to turn out in large numbers for the presidential race.
The tax would make up for what the district says is a lack of funding from the Legislature.
Pinellas gets millions in new money from the state every year, but district officials say most of it covers the staggering cost of complying with Florida's class size amendment. It does not begin to pay for increases in insurance, inflation, salaries and other costs, they say.
According to the district, the new tax is the only way to pay for teacher raises next year without painful cuts, on top of cuts made this year.
The proposed Pinellas tax would allow the district to meet the goal it set two years ago of raising teacher salaries to the national average within three to five years.
The average salary for 8,000 teachers in Pinellas is $40,068. That covers 198 days from Aug. 5 to May 18.
The national average is $47,174 and 2 percent annual increases would bring it to $52,084 by 2008. Depending on the size of the proposed tax and how the district used it, a yes vote in November could bring the average Pinellas salary to between $45,000 and $52,300 by 2008.
Pinellas teachers received an average 2 percent pay increase for the current year, although most raises were closer to 1 percent.
Several board members indicated the idea of no raises was untenable in an era when teachers are working harder than ever to comply with state and federal standards.
Superintendent Howard Hinesley said the district must hire 80 more teachers each year to comply with the class size amendment, plus find replacements for the 600 teachers who retire every year.
Without raises, Pinellas would be hard-pressed to compete for good teachers, he said.
Moore said it would be the first time in 30 years as director of the union that he would come back to his membership with a no-raise proposal.
"At that point, the revolution begins because people will be angry," he said in an interview. "They'll be professionals, but that anger has to carry over into their classroom work."
Board chairman Jane Gallucci expressed strong support for the tax Thursday, along with members Linda Lerner, Mary Brown and Lee Benjamin. Board members Carol Cook and Mary Russell supported moving ahead with the process, but expressed reservations. Board member Nancy Bostock said she was against the March 9 vote.
Thursday's debate centered on Russell and Bostock and their insistence on an independent review of district finances.
Benjamin and Lerner countered that the board oversees the budget process and sets broad direction. They said a review by members of the Pinellas Education Foundation, a private non-profit group, would suffice.
Members of the foundation board include the heads of Kane's Furniture, Verizon, Raymond James Financial, Honeywell and other corporations. Administrators added that the district already is audited by the state.
"We can't, in my judgment, say in every budget what we think is important individually," Benjamin said. That's not the board's role, he said.
"That is exactly our role," Bostock countered. "And if we're not doing that, then shame on us."