County board puts 1/4 percent levy on the shelf

By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- The idea of County Commissioners calling a referendum on a quarter-percent sales tax to raise money for the Durham Public Schools is dead -- though just for this November's general election.

Commissioners on Thursday voted 3-2 to put the sales tax proposal on the shelf for now, in lieu of holding further discussions with DPS leaders and state legislators about possible steps to avoid teacher layoffs in fiscal 2011-12.

The vote came after Lavonia Allison, chairwoman of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, told commissioners she and her group would fight the surcharge for much the same reason it fought a tax on restaurant meals the county proposed in 2008.

That reason, she said, is that the quarter percent the General Assembly granted counties local-option authority for in 2007 covers restaurant meals along with many other goods. That makes it a tax on food, one Allison argued will hit the poor harder than the wealthy.

"I'm going to have to oppose it, just to be consistent," she said.

Her stance plainly disappointed County Commissioner Joe Bowser, who pushed for Thursday's debate because he wants voters to weigh in on whether officials should use a sales surcharge or the property tax to cover the bills for an estimated 345 teachers whose jobs could disappear once the federal economic-stimulus aid that's been supporting them expires.

Bowser said he thinks a tax debate of some sort is inevitable next spring because the General Assembly is unlikely to pick up the financial slack by restoring state aid.

"It's like this, Dr. Allison: I keep an umbrella in my vehicle because I know it's going to rain someday," he said. "I need to be prepared."

But Allison in essence sided with Commissioners Ellen Reckhow and Becky Heron, neither of whom wanted a November referendum. Commissioners Chairman Michael Page wound up joining Reckhow and Heron in voting down the proposal.

Reckhow argued that the county should push DPS to cut non-teaching costs, taking advantage of new Superintendent Eric Becoats' arrival to reexamine spending priorities.

She noted that Durham County already channels to the system about $664 more in local funds per pupil than Guilford County gives to the system Becoats worked for until this summer.

And Guilford's schools, judged by test scores, do better than Durham's in educating blacks, Hispanics and the poor.

Reckhow also recalled that DPS two years ago moved roughly $13 million from teaching into support programs "to backfill cuts" the General Assembly had ordered. It wound up needing a like amount this year to save teaching jobs.

At the very least, giving Becoats time to establish his spending priorities would ensure that commissioners "have more information to put to voters if a we do a referendum at a later date," she said, noting that the law authorizing the quarter-percent surcharge allows county leaders to schedule a special election where it would be the only question on the ballot.

Heron was more hostile to the entire idea of using the surcharge authority.

Invoking it, she said, would only play into the hands of state legislators who'd like to see counties "take over school expenses." She added that she'd like the General Assembly to raise taxes on alcohol and tobacco -- "stuff people don't have to have" -- to finance schools.

Allison liked that idea, and indicated she shares Reckhow's skepticism about both DPS' budgetary priorities and academic performance.

Page was dubious about putting a sales tax on the ballot knowing beforehand that the Durham Committee -- one of the county's big-three political-action groups -- would oppose it. He also wasn't eager to rush a vote just to hit an Aug. 1 deadline for giving the Board of Elections notice the county was calling a fall referendum.

Neither Howerton nor Bowser, meanwhile, was keen on Reckhow's fallback idea that they call a special spring referendum if it looks then like DPS is still in financial dire straights. "I think it would be a waste of dollars to have the polls open just for this," Howerton said.

County officials estimate that a quarter-percent surcharge would raise about $7.8 million a year -- with one approved this fall likely to add $2 million to that on a one-time basis because it would also cover the last three months of fiscal 2010-11.

But Bowser conceded going in that a sales tax wouldn't cover the entire gap. County Manager Mike Ruffin said in answer to a question from Bowser that it would likely take close to $19 million to cover all 345 teaching jobs, assuming the people holding them make a system-average salary.