School Board members say the district needs more time to make its case on the property tax referendum.
By THOMAS C. TOBIN
Published March 4, 2004
LARGO - A property tax referendum that appeared headed for the November ballot in Pinellas County now faces an uncertain future.
School Board chairman Jane Gallucci will announce at Tuesday's regular meeting that the district needs time to explain its financial state to the public, and that a referendum probably could not be held until next March.
The proposed referendum would ask voters to approve a tax of $1 for every $1,000 of assessed valuation, mostly to lift Pinellas teacher salaries closer to the national average. The tax would generate an estimated $50-million a year. Under state law, it would have to be re-authorized by voters every four years.
"If we're asking people to pay more, we need to educate the populace and the voters as to why we need the money," Gallucci said Wednesday.
"I've been saying from the beginning that November's too soon," said vice chairman Carol Cook.
Others on the seven-member board also want to slow down based on a presentation last week by a consultant, David Voss, who has worked on similar campaigns in Sarasota and other counties.
In Sarasota's successful campaign two years ago, the public education effort took 12 to 13 months and produced enough concern that community groups started pressing for a tax to spare arts and extracurricular programs from severe cuts.
So far, in Pinellas, the primary impetus for the tax is coming from the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association, the union representing about 8,000 teachers.
The union conducted a recent poll that found 53 percent of the county's likely voters in November would support a property tax of $1 for every $1,000 of assessed valuation.
The strongest support was among Democrats and no-party voters. About 80 percent said they would lean toward voting for the tax if the money was used to maintain competitive teacher salaries. However, 53 percent agreed with the statement: "Pinellas County School District already has enough money, they just need to manage it better."
At least two members of the School Board - Nancy Bostock and Mary Russell - say they have similar reservations about the district's finances.
The poll results indicate a property tax referendum would have a good chance of success with a public education campaign, according to Jade Moore, the union's executive director.
Gallucci had a different take. "The poll was telling us that we have our work cut out for us," she said Wednesday.
The board is considering a public education campaign, focus groups and an intensive review of the district finances that would compare Pinellas to other Florida counties. But the details of those efforts have yet to be worked out.
Complicating the picture was the news that a special election next March could cost the district as much as $750,000. Moore said he received that estimate late Wednesday from Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark.
The high price tag creates a dilemma. If the school board were to place a referendum on the Nov. 2 ballot, it would incur no cost but risk defeat by rushing the campaign. Waiting until March would buy more time, but the cost could be prohibitive.
Moore said spending $750,000 to get $200-million in new revenue over four years is "not a bad return on investment."
But some board members expressed concerns over cost, saying that even $200,000 for a special election with no guarantee of success sounded high in an era of deep budget cuts.
According to district budget officers, the new tax is the only way to pay for teacher raises next year without painful cuts.
Under projections based on Gov. Jeb Bush's proposed budget, Pinellas will have to cut at least $6-million from its operations for the 2004-05 school year. Teachers would not get a raise for the first time in at least 30 years.
A 2 percent teacher raise would require cuts of $34-million in other areas of the budget.
Pinellas and other districts across Florida are reeling from high health care costs and the cost of implementing the class-size amendment approved by voters in November 2000.
The proposed tax would cost an extra $125 a year for the owner of a $150,000 home with a $25,000 homestead exemption.
