Committee endorses new Centertown School
A roll call vote asking members to commit to financing a new school at Centertown will take place during the Aug. 15 meeting of the Warren County Commission.
The Commission’s Budget and Finance Committee voted 3-1 yesterday morning to endorse a request of the Education Committee to present the idea to the full county commission.
Voting against the measure was committee member Herschel Wells, who noted afterwards he didn’t know exactly what he was voting on. Committee member Michael Martin was absent.
The committee’s motion supporting the Centertown School project did not include details, or how to specifically fund it, as did the Education Committee’s measure passed last week. This was done, said Education Committee chairman Bill Zechman, based on the advice of county attorney Larry Stanley, who he said advised against the commission endorsing a bond issue until details are fleshed out.
After discussing the project with architects and engineers, school system officials have estimated that a new school at Centertown that meets the system’s needs would cost around $6.5 million.
While many, if not most, commissioners have voiced their agreement that the county’s oldest school, built in 1949, needs to be replaced, the question is how to fund such a project. Some commissioners, including Zechman, have said they would support a property tax increase if necessary, while others, including Wells and County Executive Kenneth Rogers seem adamantly opposed to that idea.
Rogers said his plan to put money freed up by the increased local option sales tax money into the county’s debt service to pay off two notes early would in turn free up 10 cents of property tax revenue next fiscal year – revenue which could be used to help fund a new school without a property tax increase.
Zechman said paying off debt early is a worthy goal, but that ultimately Rogers’ plan is a “shell game” which simply passes money around, decreases the county’s fund balance and pushes the tax burden to the future.
“We need to call it by what it really is – a tax increase. Let’s tell the public the truth,” Zechman said.
Budget discussions will continue at 7 p.m. tomorrow as the Budget and Finance Committee reconvenes at Warren County Administrative Offices.