Booming Lancaster to Consider Tax Hike for Schools

Frustrated by a lack of state funds for school construction, officials in the fast-growing Lancaster School District have decided to explore asking local voters for a property tax hike to fund as much as $52 million in new and renovated school facilities.

The district’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday night agreed to hire two consulting firms at an initial cost of $15,500 to investigate the possibility of placing a general obligation bond measure on the April 10 ballot. Such a tax hike requires two-thirds voter approval.

Board members have yet to decide the exact amount of the bond measure or the school projects it would fund. But they could not surpass the $52-million figure, the consultants said. The advisers plan to survey at least 400 district residents on how much of a tax hike, if any, they would support.

Based on a maximum $52-million measure, the owner of a typical home in the district with an assessed value of $100,000 would receive a peak tax increase of nearly $112 a year by the mid-1990s, the consultants said. The amount would decline thereafter and average $54.58 a year over a 25-year period.

“We’ve got to do something. This seems to be our only way out at the present time,” said board President Richard White before the panel’s 3-0 vote to pursue a bond issue. For an April ballot measure, the board would have to approve a specific proposal by early December.

Officials in the 10,700-student district, in which enrollment is up 13% over last year, complained that the state has no money available now for school construction, and that new funds may not be available for at least a year. In the meantime, the district is trying to finance the construction of several new schools.

District officials took their cue from the adjoining Westside Union School District, which covers the western portion of Lancaster. In a June election, voters there approved an $8.5-million general obligation bond issue for school facilities. It passed with only 25 votes to spare out of 2,331 votes cast.