Orange, Lake set to vote on school taxes

Revenue would fund operations, safety

Voters in Orange County will be asked to renew a special property tax to help pay for operating costs while Lake voters will decide on a special tax for school security and mental health care improvements — both appearing on the Aug. 28 primary ballot.

School leaders in both counties say the optional taxes would help them fill needs that won’t be met by state funding.

Orange County voters will decide if they want to keep a tax that generated $116 million during the 2016-17 fiscal year, funding teacher salaries, as well as arts, athletics and activities.

Property owners will continue paying $1 per $1,000 of assessed value if it’s approved.

For a resident with a home valued at $160,000 — the median value in Orange — the tax equates to $135 a year or $11.25 a month.

Voters have paid the tax for the past eight years, and the district is asking voters to extend it for another four. It’s

the only “yes or no” question Orange voters will see on their ballots this August.

In Lake, the school safety tax would generate about $16 million for the district and would help cover the cost of making buildings more secure; place a nurse in every school; provide more alternative education options; and allow the district to hire more psychologists, social workers, counselors and resource officers.

Property owners would pay 75 cents per $1,000 of taxable value.

If the proposal passes, the owner of a home valued at $125,000 with a homestead exemption will pay $75 per year. Like Orange, Lake’s tax would last for four years if voters agree to it.

Both counties also have local-option sales taxes that benefit schools, but that money can’t be used for operating expenses such as salaries.

For both districts, the property tax would pay expenses leaders say they can’t cover using their normal state allocations. Orange has arts programs in every school, 31 varsity teams at most high schools and middle school athletic programs, largely because the district has had the added revenue from the optional property tax since voters first approved it in 2010.

The tax passed with nearly 55 percent of the vote in 2010 and more than 76 percent in 2014.

Without the tax, Orange leaders said, they likely would’ve had to cut teachers and programs during the post-Great Recession years, as many Florida districts had to do.

“It’s been a real life ring for Orange County public schools over the past eight years,” Chairman Bill Sublette said.

While the state provided funding for some of these expenses during the current school year (about $1.2 million for security officers and $1.2 million for mental health counselors in Lake), it’s not enough, School Board member Bill Mathias said. And it’s unclear whether the state will continue to provide money specifically to help cover these items in future years.

Mental health is of particular concern in south Lake County, where five students killed themselves last year. In one of those cases, three loaded magazines were found in the backpack of a student who shot himself on campus.

A survey of more than 1,700 Lake high school students in recent months showed nearly a quarter felt they had no one to turn to if they were in trouble.

“We want to get ahead of it where my vision one day is we’re not talking about policemen in schools because we have reached out and helped these kids before they take such a tragic act,” Mathias said.

While Lake agreed to allow some people who aren’t law enforcement officers, including school personnel, to carry firearms on campus, none of the money generated from this tax would fund that program.