ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 2, 1996 TAG: 9602020013
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
ASKED TO approve a slight tax increase to pay for pressing school needs, some Roanoke County voters are responding with a question of their own: "What's in it for me?"
County officials anticipated as much. Indeed, in putting together a bond package that will require, at most, a 2-cent increase in the county's $1.13 real-estate tax rate, the School Board included a little something for every magisterial district.
There's no getting around the fact, however, that the bulk of the $37.4 million bond issue - $33.6 million - would be used to build a new Cave Spring High School in Southwest County. So, if you're a taxpayer with no children who will attend Cave Spring High in the coming years, what is in it for you?
First, let's hope the vast majority in any locality won't have to be persuaded of the need to provide a sound, tax-supported, public education. The benefits of an educated work force to the economy, and of an educated citizenry to democracy, ought to be clear enough.
Let's hope, too, that most people will acknowledge that excellence in such education not only reflects but promotes general prosperity. Good schools, for example, are good for property values - a fact that may occasion grumbling at tax-assessment time, but not at most other times. Homeowners, after all, want to see the value of their investment rise.
The county's $37.4 million bond issue is part of the school district's five-year, $85 million capital-improvement plan. The county has many needs, but none, individually, will cost anything approaching the expense of a new high school. Smaller school projects can be handled over several years by borrowing money from the state Literary Loan Fund, which is capped at $5 million per project. The high school will cost far more than that.
But is it needed?
Yes. If residents value the county's reputation for top-quality schools, as they should, they will vote for a new Cave Spring High. Because of the cost, other parts of the county may feel slighted. But no other high school in the county is in such desperate need. Only in the Cave Spring district is crowding so bad that ninth-graders have to go to junior high schools. Only there do facilities dictate educational policy, instead of the other way around.
With continuing population growth in Southwest County, no one can reasonably argue that the school won't have to be built - if not now, later.
But can't it be delayed several years, until the county's bonded debt falls and new debt can be taken on without raising taxes?
No. The delay has gone on too long as it is. Further delay would compound the financial waste. If the bond referendum fails, the county will have to spend $1 million to repair Cave Spring High's crumbling, old stadium; $2.5 million for air conditioning and an electrical upgrade at Cave Spring Junior High; and $2.5 million on renovations to Cave Spring High School. And a new high school still would be needed.
By which time, it would cost more.
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