School district, county look for other revenue sources after penny tax fails
BROOKSVILLE — In many ways, Penny For Projects was promoted like a political candidate.
Along roads and outside polling places in Hernando County, signs touting the potential benefits of its passage were seen next to those for Hernando County School Board and county commission candidates, gubernatorial candidates and signs for and against Amendment 2.
Nearly $160,000 was raised for those efforts, which included full-color informational packets that explained projects identified by county, school district and city of Brooksville leaders.
Those efforts apparently didn’t resonate with voters. More than 35,000 voters said no to the penny on Tuesday, while less than 28,000 people supported the referendum, according to unofficial results from the county elections office.
“I’m definitely disappointed,” said Cliff Manuel, a member of Hernando Progress, an organization that focuses on economic development, and a penny supporter. “It would have been a good investment that all citizens would have benefitted from.
“I think we’ll have an option to look at it again (in 2016) and consider some things we learned in this campaign, primarily in considering the diversity and types of projects we’re inviting citizens to approve.”
Over 10 years, the penny could have generated about $85 million for the cash-strapped school district, which must now scramble to find $62.4 million to buy electronic tablets for each Hernando student, as mandated by the state.
The balance of the school district’s penny revenue money would have been used to replace roofs, heating, ventilating and air-conditioning units and fire alarms at schools.
“We narrowly missed an opportunity give all Hernando County students a real competitive advantage in college and in the workforce,” schools Superintendent Lori Romano said in statement released Tuesday night. “We still have significant needs in our schools, and we will continue to work to find new sources of funding.”
Romano said district staff are “already working on plans to increase funding, decrease spending and still meet state digital instructional material and computer-based assessment requirements.” Those plans should be complete early next year, she said.
Romano had originally recommended that the school district not partner with city and county officials and instead seek the extension of a half-cent sales tax that expires this year.
Earlier this year, the county commission voted to reinstate impact fees for county parks, libraries, and transportation — but not education.
Former school board member Dianne Bonfield and school board chairman Gus Guadagnino were among the penny’s original skeptics.
“For me to see collaboration, there was no one there (in February) when we stood in front of the (county) commission and (lobbied) for money that would have specifically come to us through school impact fees, and we lost,” Bonfield said during a school board meeting in May. “We needed the help, and we didn’t get it. …
“I don’t see any benefit for us to get into this penny. I see the possibility of us losing.”
Brooksville and county leaders also identified several projects, including nearly $14 million for two projects at heavily congested Mariner Boulevard and State Road 50; a nearly $20 million, two-part expansion of Barclay Avenue; and more than $6 million in improvements to South Main Street in Brooksville.
Manuel, the Hernando Progress member, said that perhaps there could have been more east Hernando projects on the proposed list and better described how the school district’s technological mandates “would work and be funded.”
A Penny For Projects committee followed a similar campaign plan that had worked in Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, Osceola, Escambia and Hardee counties.
“We did generate 27,000 votes, so we can educate ourselves on this, and re-introduce it again,” Manuel said. “I do want to thank those citizens who participated and supported it.”
County Administrator Len Sossamon said he also was appreciative of those who supported the sales tax amendment and “who saw the light and the vision” of the investment for capital improvements.
Since the penny failed, Sossamon said students will have to continue walking in the streets because there will be no money to build sidewalks.
As for motorists who complain about congestion at Cortez and Mariner: They’ll have to continue complaining, he said.
Sossamon said he believes the Penny For Projects committee “played a pretty good game” and educated voters as well as it could about the capital projects.
Before Tuesday’s vote, there were signs the penny might not pass.
Several political candidates who spoke with Hernando Today in recent weeks said that, in going door-to-door on the campaign trail, they encountered many residents who were opposed to the tax and skeptical of how the money would be tracked.
Hernando Today reader Jack Palcovic was among those turned off by penny information he received in the mail.
“I was all for it until I saw the money for the (Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport). That is crazy,” Palcovic said in an email. “It’s bad enough the taxpayers got stuck with the cost of a control tower. I and many other taxpayers will certainly vote no.”
They certainly did.
Reporter Michael D. Bates contributed to this story.
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