Published on August 29, 2024 at 2:47 pm
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The general election is still months away, but St. Johns County Schools Superintendent Tim Forson is pressing the need for two school taxes.
In an interview this week with Jacksonville Today, Forson characterized the taxes as critical to serving students and preserving the quality of life in the county.
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As more and more people move to the county, the district has had to move fast to accommodate a growing number of students. Forson says that continuing the district’s half-cent sales tax and approving a new 1-mill property tax will help fight overcrowding, get students out of portables and into classrooms and fill the district’s vacant roles.
The half-cent sales tax first went into effect in 2016, and Forson tells Jacksonville Today that the measure has enabled the district to fund the construction of much-needed schools and make students and personnel safer.
“There are a number of schools that wouldn’t be in existence right now had we not had that half-cent sales tax,” he says. “The other part of it that I think has been really important — that people don’t see — is the dollars that we’ve spent on school safety, and the half-cent sales tax has been a great resource for us to do that.”
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The sales tax works like this: When anyone makes a taxable purchase in St. Johns County, they pay an extra half cent per dollar, which goes to the school district. That measure will affect St. Johns residents, but also tourists and anyone who buys merchandise from, say, Buc-ees on Interstate 95, even if they don’t do anything else in St. Johns County.
The other measure this November will ask voters if they, like their neighbors in Duval County, want to pay a little more in property taxes to help fund the school district.
The district wants the extra money to help boost salaries for teachers and other staff. With more competitive salaries, Forson says, the district can fill vacancies and ensure all of the district’s schools can provide a top-notch education.
It’s one thing to hire new teachers, he says, but it’s another to keep them on board when nearby counties with cheaper housing markets can pay just as much or more.
“We may add 100 to 200 teachers a year,” Forson says. “We’ve got to retain them. We don’t want to be rehiring positions that already existed year to year.”
For or against
The immediate reactions to increased property taxes, even if the funds would go toward teacher salaries, haven’t been universally positive.
Before the two measures were placed on the ballot for November, the St. Johns County Commission had to give final approval. Speaking with the county’s legal team, county commissioners made one thing clear: Approving the measures for the ballot was not an endorsement, but something they pretty much had to do to avoid legal action.
Even more than the prospect of paying more in taxes, members of the public were frustrated that the county chose to discuss the issue at an emergency meeting scheduled during work hours. The public was not given notice beyond the item’s appearing on the county’s meeting calendar days in advance.
The County Commission ultimately approved 4-1 with Commissioner Krista Joseph dissenting. She said she voted no because of the procedure the School Board followed to bring it before the county.
The measures could have been brought forward months ago, but Forson says the reason they chose to wait until just after the primary election was to avoid confusing voters.
During that meeting, members of the public also argued that increasing property taxes for schools and keeping the half-cent sales tax in place would result in local “inflation.”
Elsewhere, on social media, some people have questioned why the school district’s proposed $1.5 billion budget dwarfs the county’s proposed $1.2 billion budget.
That’s like comparing apples to oranges, Forson says. The school system is the county’s largest employer and also owns much land in the form of schools and other buildings.
With 51,000 students and 48 schools, St. Johns County Schools’ budget is less than half of the Duval County Schools’ budget for the next fiscal year. With more than 128,000 students and 97 schools, Duval is looking at spending $3.3 billion.
School budgets have to fund a lot, and Forson hopes that, come November, even voters who don’t have kids in the school system will support extra funding for the county’s schools.
“It is about the quality of life in the county, and part of the foundational core of the quality of life, I think, is the educational system that exists in that county or in that community,” Forson says. “And so I think however we can protect and promote that, we need to do the very best we can to do it. I have six children, so I’m really vested, but for those who have none, it is benefiting you by being a resident of this county with a high quality educational system.”
The deadline to register to vote in St. Johns County is Oct. 7.
