Counties have hard time paying for new schools
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
Managers discuss common challenge
Todd Silberman, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -Wake County taxpayers, take note: You’re not alone.
Counties across the state need new schools and share the challenge of figuring out how to pay for them.
Several dozen county leaders came looking for answers in Raleigh at a daylong conference Wednesday sponsored by the N.C. Association of County Commissioners.
Nearly $10 billion will be needed statewide in the next five years, much of it to build new schools to meet a projected enrollment increase of nearly 70,000 students, according to a recent report from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
Proceeds from the new state lottery will help counties fund some construction, but the biggest share will remain the responsibility of the counties. The lottery will raise an estimated $160.5 million a year for school construction, allocated to counties using on a sliding scale that accounts for enrollment and local tax effort. Wake County school leaders expect about $9 million of that.
Wake is betting on a $970 million bond referendum Nov. 7 to finance most of a $1.056 billion construction program for the next four years.
Mecklenburg County is holding off on a second try at a major bond vote after voters soundly rejected a $427 million proposal last fall. County leaders now plan to meet immediate needs by borrowing $123 million by using certificates of participation, which don’t require voter approval — and then scheduling a bond vote for next November. (more…)
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