Board of Education Pleads But Did Commissioners Listen?

LCHS Renovations At Heart of Tax Discussion

Finally, the Lee County Board of Education had a chance to make its case to the Lee County Commissioners regarding the importance of being more specific about the use of revenues from the proposed 1/4 cent sales and use tax on the May ballot. The issue had been fermenting since references to use of the money for the LCHS were stripped from a resolution about use of the sales tax revenue funds. (Read Previous Post Concerning This). If any commissioner's mind was changed, it was not evident.

Instead, it fell to Board of Education Chair Bill Tatum to be the statesman in response to county manager John Compton's presentation on the counties overall capital needs. Tatum made it clear he would work for passage of the referendum whether or not specific funds were committed to LCSH because of the need growth was creating in the schools, the community college, and the rest of county government. Tatum urged his board to do the same.

While Commission Bob Brown spoke sympathetically to the LCHS renovations, he seemed unable to nudge his commissioners to take specific action. Instead, he agreed that a committee should be formed to make the case for the referendum to the voters as reported in today's Sanford Herald. The committee would be made up of two com­missioners, two members of the school board and two members each from Central Carolina Community College Board of Trustees and Lee County Economic Development Corporation — to work with the Friends of Lee County High School, a non-profit group of concerned parents, to sell the need for the tax increase to the general public in advance of May’s referendum.

You could see the hopes of the Board of Education rise with this suggestion. The Board of Education strongly believes that without listing very specific plans for use of the 1/4 cent sales tax revenue the tax referendum will be defeated. Based on earlier comments by Commissioner Robert Rieves, their vision of the committee was one in which the potential participants in the capital projects would agree to some allocation from part of the $37 million in debt to be issued.

But the mood of the board of education fell when it became clear the scope of the committee was narrowed to sell the board of commissioner's current vague resolution to spend the money on unspecified capital projects with a priority on education but no specifics.

I seemed like the commissioner's still have their chronic problem of not listening to what they do not want to hear.