Schools’ plan for new taxes must be more transparent
If the Palm Beach County public school system hopes to persuade voters to increase the county sales tax, it had better pick up the pace on explaining how it intends to spend the $1.3 billion that would be coming its way.
Last week, the district released a “sales tax project list” that fit on a single page. It showed 30 broad spending categories such as classroom technology ($100 million), plumbing ($100 million) and “interior repair/improvement” ($151.8 million). That’s not what you’d call specific. It was far less information than the Palm Beach County government has given regarding its share of the proposed 1-penny tax hike. The county released a list four months ago that details every construction project it would undertake with the projected $696 million that would be coming its way.
In what looks like a tough sell, the School District, county government and Palm Beach County municipalities have teamed up to ask voters to approve on Nov. 8 a hike in the sales tax to 7 cents per dollar from 6 cents to raise $2.7 billion in revenue over 10 years. The schools would get half the proceeds, the county 30 percent and cities 20 percent.
For that kind of commitment — an extra penny on the dollar, day in and day out for a decade — voters deserve to know exactly what they will be getting for the money.
It’s not that the School District doesn’t know how to do this. A second page issued last week, in conjunction with the sales tax projects, listed an additional $318 million of “projects funded with long-term borrowing and other sources.” The 21 items on this page are a snap to understand: $20 million for modernization of Addison Mizner Elementary School; $56 million for a new high school in “greater West Palm Beach/Lake Worth area.”
And a month ago, the district released a thorough assessment of its backlog of deteriorating buildings and equipment at 196 school facilities, a school-by-school list of “critical repairs” with a price tag of $1.2 billion.
Officials say that voters will get more information on a website to be unveiled next month. But that site will omit the estimated costs of the projects at each school. Superintendent Robert Avossa said it’s “not an uncommon practice” to be a little vague, because actual expenses might vary from initial estimates, and those shifts could trigger infighting among parents and school officials.
To be sure, an oversight committee will be looking over the spending if voters approve this tax. And the district has a good record. It kept its promises on 2004’s five-year, half-cent sales tax, using that $651 million, as promised, to build or replace 24 schools and complete another 135 projects, from classroom additions to a new swimming pool, that tax’s oversight committee reported this year.
But vows to carefully watch future spending aren’t a substitute for the fullest possible disclosures beforehand. As school officials have surely noticed, this is a year in which voters everywhere are slow to trust government — especially with their tax dollars. To win them over on this tax hike, the district should do all it can to be as transparent as possible.