ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – After the St. Johns County Commission voted 3-2 against placing a referendum to raise the sales tax on the ballot, ending efforts to raise more revenue for the county, but the School Board is mulling its own referendum to fund new schools.
The 1-cent tax hike the commissioners rejected would have brought St. Johns County's sales tax rate to 7 percent -- the same as that of surrounding counties -- and would have generated an estimated $23 million.
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"The county administrator will now move forward with a recommended budget that will provide several options for the board of county commissioners to consider to balance the budget for FY16," Michael Ryan, spokesman for the county, said in a statement. "With the sales tax taken off the table as an option, there is not funding for the 10-year backlog of needed capital improvement projects (fire stations, libraries, roads, parks, Sheriff's Training Center, etc.)."
The vote came after the commission rejected by the same margin a request by School Superintendent Joseph Joyner to split the additional revenue from the sales tax hike with the school board. Joyner told the commission that the county needs to build nearly one dozen schools in the next 10 years because the district is growing so fast.
Joyner projects that the student count will grow from 35,000 to 49,000 students over the next 10 years, which means the district will also need to build 20 new schools over the next decade.
"The need is there. The growth is not going down," Joyner said. "We're already ordering twice as many portable classrooms as we have in the past."
Despite the overcrowding, 87 percent of St. Johns County students graduate from high school -- a rate almost 10 percent higher than the rest of the state of Florida.
After commissioners voted down the school's request, they promised the board will look into other ways to ensure the school board meets its capital needs.
The School Board is not waiting for that aid, telling News4Jax it is mulling its own plan to ask voters for a tax increase just to fund new schools.