NC Voters Approve $810 Million Construction Bond

RALEIGH, N.C. — Wake County voters in North Carolina approved an $810 million school construction bond on Oct. 8. The bond, which will raise taxes, is necessary to keep up with the county’s public school enrollment growth and was approved by a 15-percentage point margin, according to News Observer.
The bond will pay for most of a $939.9 million construction project to build 11 elementary schools, three middle schools and two high schools. The funding will also go towards major renovations to six schools and small updates to 79 others as well as purchase land for future schools.
The future construction projects will be used to help accommodate the projected 20,000-student increase in enrollment by 2018.
The bond will increase the county’s property tax rate to 5.53 cents per $100 of assessed value that would be phased in over several years. Commissioners are slated to consider a tax increase for the bonds next June, with taxpayers seeing the results on next year’s tax bill.
The question remains as to who will be in charge of the school construction projects. Earlier this year, the General Assembly rejected a bill that would have transferred authority for Wake County school construction from the Democratic-led school board to the Republican-sided county commissioners.
The last school construction bond issue for the Wake school system was a $970 million measure approved by voters in 2006. The opposing side to the bond said that the money was not needed and that there are several empty seats in schools, as well as inaccurate enrollment projections in the 2006 bond issue. They also questioned the amount of money the school system spent on construction with the bonds paying for $70 million high schools and for renovations costing almost as much as building new schools.