Quad-City school districts seeking local sales tax extension

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By Sheena Dooley | Saturday, February 23, 2008 |

School district leaders in Scott County aren’t waiting for state lawmakers when it comes to securing millions of dollars generated by a 1-cent sales tax.

Davenport, Bettendorf, North Scott and Pleasant Valley school districts will hold a special election March 4 to extend the countywide tax, known as the school infrastructure local option sales tax, for another 10 years. It currently generates more than $22 million a year for the four districts combined, which they use for school construction projects. The sales tax is set to expire in 2009.

Schools in Muscatine County also will put a similar ballot measure before voters on the same day as Scott County’s vote.

That comes as Iowa lawmakers have introduced legislation that would make the tax permanent and statewide. Under the proposed bill, the state would gather the expected $400 million in revenue and distribute it to school districts based on their enrollment.

If it passed, area school districts would no longer need approval from voters in Scott County to extend the tax. However, the lawmakers have failed to pass similar legislation in previous years.

“We believe that we have an obligation to really look out for the interest of Scott County schools,” said Tim Dose, North Scott School District superintendent. “We didn’t think we should be sitting around waiting for the Legislature to make this a statewide program. We felt it is important to renew this now so we can begin planning.”

The four local districts stand to gain more money if the sales tax becomes statewide, leaders said. That’s because lawmakers capped the amount of money schools can raise through the tax after districts in rural counties complained about the law’s inequity, saying they did not have the retail base of larger cities. Under the change, money raised through the tax goes to the state, which then gives districts $575 for each student they enroll.

At the time, lawmakers said districts that had the sales tax approved prior to the change would not be affected until it expired. Scott County was among them.

For Davenport, which currently receives more than $900 a student, the change will mean a $5 million yearly decrease in funding. That loss would be significantly less under the proposed legislation, which increases the per-pupil amount to an estimated $730, according to Dose.

“Obviously, the local option sales tax is a huge thing for this district because it’s the one way we can do capital improvements,” said Donna Cooper, director of operations for the Davenport School District. “You see it every day. The additions ... include media centers, science labs and the things you don’t see every day like geothermal systems and HVAC.”

Pleasant Valley School District leaders are depending on the extension of the sales tax, which the district expects to raise $2 million a year from under the current $575 cap, to fund a new elementary school.

The district has gained more than 280 students in the last five years, stretching the capacity of its current schools. That prompted school board members to step up efforts to build a new school at the district’s 25-acre site off Hopewell Avenue, near the intersection of Devils Glen Road and 53rd Avenue.

Under preliminary plans, leaders are looking to build an elementary school that would house almost 340 students in kindergarten through sixth grade, with room to add to the building in future years. The price tag for the project is an estimated $10 million.

If voters approve the 10-year extension, officials from the other districts said they plan to use money generated from it to pay for projects that include adding air conditioning, renovating and adding onto classrooms, improving the security of school entrances, and making schools more energy-efficient.

At least 50 percent of voters must approve the extension for it to pass.

“I can’t imagine not having the ability to improve our schools for our students,” Cooper said. “Our kids deserve the best buildings we can give them and this money helps us to do that. With it we wouldn’t be doing these improvements. We couldn’t do them.”

Sheena Dooley can be contacted at (563) 383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com.

VOTE MARCH 4

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4.

If you are not sure of your polling place, check your voter registration card, call the Scott County Auditor’s Office at (563) 326-8631, or check the office’s Web site at scottcountyiowa.com/auditor/polling_places.php.

A breakdown of the school infrastructure local option sales tax by district

Davenport School District

Amount generated in the tax’s first 10 years: $135.9 million

Estimated revenue for the next 10 years: $93 million

Projects funded: the new Buffalo Elementary School, improvements to high school gyms and science classrooms and new school libraries, renovations to elementary and middle schools and air conditioning in some elementary schools, among others.

Bettendorf School District

Amount generated in the tax’s first 10 years: $33.5 million

Estimated revenue for next 10 years: $23.6 million

Projects funded: the new Neil Armstrong Elementary School, improvements to the middle and high school and renovations to Grant Wood, Herbert Hoover, Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain elementary schools.

Pleasant Valley School District

Amount generated in the tax’s first 10 years: $25.6 million

Estimated revenue for the next 10 years: $20.1 million

Projects funded: additions to every elementary school, and music and wellness addition to the junior high and high schools.

North Scott School District

Amount generated in the tax’s first 10 years: $25 million

Estimated revenue for the next 10 years: $17.3 million

Projects funded: security improvements to the high school, a new gym floor at Grissom Elementary School and purchase of property. About $11 million went to pay off bonds from when the district put additions onto all of its schools.