Montgomery County residents are asking for higher property taxes in order to pay for new schools for their children.
In the first of two public forums Tuesday night, superintendent Brenda Blackburn listened to public comment from parents and educators from both the Blacksburg and Auburn schools.
The school board estimates a tax increase of around 10.5 cents because of the amount that will have to be borrowed to pay for improvements to the current Blacksburg High School or the construction of a new school. It will also cover the planned improvements to Auburn middle and high Schools.
Improvements to AHS and AMS were “supposed to be next,” school board member Walt Shannon said.
The board had planned to construct a new AHS at an estimated cost of $44.5 million and improve AHS to become the new AMS at an estimated cost of $22.5 million.
The collapse of the BHS in February interfered with these original plans as 1,200 Blacksburg strand students were displaced.
The board has also estimated a new BHS would cost around $57.4 million, and merely improving the current BHS building would cost around $14.4 million.
School board members and members of the Montgomery County board of supervisors seem to be in support of repairing the current BHS building because of its reduced cost.
However, many parents and community members who addressed Blackburn Tuesday night were in support of a new school building in Blacksburg.
“I would encourage the school board and the board of supervisors to recognize this is a good time to be buying,” said Matt Beeken, a teacher at BHS,. “If we can move quickly we can get a deal.”
Colin Baker, another teacher at BHS, concurred, advocating for the building of a new school building.
“My wife will not let my kids in that building,” Baker said. “This is a psychological thing for parents. Our parents will not feel safe sending our kids to that building.”
Other parents advocated for the plan to build schools in Auburn simultaneously during construction in Blacksburg.
“You need to keep Auburn as high on the list as you can,” said one mother of students at Auburn. “I would definitely support a tax increase if it meant getting Auburn some new school facilities.”
The school board intends to discuss the building plan at their next meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 17. There will be another public forum Monday, Aug. 16 at 6:30 p.m., in the Christiansburg Government Center building.
A version of this article appeared in the Aug 12 issue of the Collegiate Times.
Leave a comment 28 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
I take it these parents in favor of higher property taxes probably rent their homes. I own a house in Blacksburg and have a middle school age child and would prefer my taxes didn't go up. How about we impose a rental tax? Renters make up a substantial portion of Blacksburg residents. Here's another question. I haven't seen in any of the stories I've read concerning the BHS collapse. Where's the insurance money???? Wasn't the building properly insured? Second, from previous stories about the collapse, I believe the cause was found to be a combination of snow weight and improper beam welding. If the beams were improperly welded don't we have the ability to sue the original building company to recoup some of these losses?
Reply to this Top
Well, Mr/Ms Anonymous of 9:30 am post... Do you think suing the builder/subcontractor will get money here fast enough to cover the cost of new Auburn and Blacksburg building? Good luck with that.
In the meantime, I, a Blacksburg HOMEOWNER with TWO high school students, would be willing to pay increased taxes to get the new schools built sooner. My kids won't benefit directly, but I know my neighbors' children will - including my far flung neighbors in the Auburn strand.
Mr/Ms Anonymous, you mention the insurance money for the Blacksburg gym... Have you forgotten about the money the county will receive once the old BMS land is sold? Perhaps you should be pressing for maximum development there instead of attacking Blacksburg renters.
Reply to this Top
How about they do all of the above and not RAISE MY TAXES. Taxes are collected twice a year not like that's coming quickly for the school either. Taxing a rent check each month would be the quickest way to raise capital mentioned out of all the options. Maybe they should take up a voluntary collection. Looks like you're wealthy enough to give, they can name a classroom for you.
Top
What makes you better than the renters? You seem to think that most of the people who rent won't seem to mind. Yet, the majority of them will NOT benefit from a tax like that in the slightest. The ones that WILL benefit are the home owners.
Top
I never said I was better than the renters. (Though I'm a permanent member of the community while most of them are just passing through.) I said it was a faster way to raise capital for funding of school projects on an income source that is currently not being taxed. I would definitely benefit more by taxing renters than having my property taxes increased...
Top
Do you mean taxing renters, or taxing the homeowners who rent? Of course, either way, the homeowners would likely pass along the cost by raising rent, but just curious which idea you mean.
Top
I say re-route funds from other projects or eliminate some projects all together. Home & Land sales/values are falling thru the floor...why increase the taxes & make them even less desireable? You think the sales market is loaded with land/homes now...wait until the taxes go up 17%. I've heard delinquent taxes are at a record high now. Imagine what this might do.
Top
Rental taxes have not been passed or approved by the VA state legislature. They would have to be approoved in this manor because VA is a "Dillon Rule" state. The VA Real Estate lobby has been successful at shooting down any and all attpemts that would empower local municipalities to control these aspects of their communities.
Reply to this Top
I agree with the first anonymous commenter. When I bought my home in Montgomery County I was required to have insurance that covered both the value of the land and of all structures on the land. I'm sure that the insurance will not be sufficient to cover the entire costs of reconstruction due to increases in building costs, greediness of insurance companies, etc but a large portion should be covered by any insurance on the building. Does insurance not apply to schools? If I had a 50 million dollar building contracted out to the lowest construction bidder I'm pretty sure I'd have it insured. I haven't read anything regarding insurance either and I haven't seen insurance pay out applied to any of the current cost estimates for rebuilding. Is this money going into the pockets of crooked school board members so they can raise property taxes even higher for the rest of us?
Reply to this Top
Montgomery County is already the highest taxed county in the area. Higher than Giles, Floyd, Pulaski, and Radford. My question is, where did all the money go? If they collected more revenues than all the other counties, what did they spend it on? Maybe our money isn't beings spent on things that are important (like school buildings that are not crumbling apart and full of mold)
Reply to this Top
You, too, David. Try doing a little reading before asking. It's not that hard.
http://www.montva.com/content/1146/98/143/2304.aspx
Top
"Where did it all go" - Well, if you were to google "montgomery county VA budget", you could see where it went, as well as where it's proposed to go in the next fiscal year. Now, Tell us what parts of that you think were mis-spent?
Here's the link in case your still having difficulty googling - http://www.montva.com/content/1146/98/143/2304.aspx
Top
Anonymous (8:12 am), if you are so uninformed about the subject, you should do a little research before commenting. The information is out there.
Reply to this Top
Ok, did the reseach. Ummm, let's see. Yep. STILL the highest taxed county in the region, and still the only one with buildings falling on the kid's heads. $17M on debt interest? $26M in a general fund? And now they want to raise taxes. Again and again. Tax and spend, tax and spend. And still we get nothing but increased bureaucracy, red tape, and incompetency. They have budgeted to spend $97M on schools, and what are we getting for our money? What do we get for $97M? Students who can hardly pass the SOL, taught incomplete left wing history, taught the religion of evolution, schools full of drugs, and roofs that cave in. Sorry to say, but something smells rotten in Denmark.
Top
Yeah, nothing like the uninformed trying to influence the decisions that affect the future of the county and the children. What makes people think renters _aren't_ already paying taxes? The owners of the property aren't getting off free just because they rent out the space, they have to pay real estate tax like everyone else and that expense is calculated and passed on as part of the rent. As to higher taxes than Floyd and Giles, yeah, true, but Montgomery County isn't like Floyd, it is an urban county more like Roanoke County -- in which case our taxes are quite low in comparison. As to the comment in the story about "merely improving the current BHS building" for $14 million, sorry, no, that figure will only cover the cost to check the faulty concrete structure and make it right, then repair the damage from those repairs. There is still more expense necessary to "improve" the current building, which is a waste of money that could and would be better spent on a new building instead of a dump that has been wrong from the day it was opened (between the substandard construction and the fad of open classrooms that was poorly retrofitted). Perhaps if the members of the school board and supervisors actually paid a visit to the place today as it is propped up, they would see that it isn't worth putting any more money into, other than to close it down and demolish it.
Top
Joe Hokie sounds like the voice of reason here. And David is of course the nutjob. No reason to drag teabagger politics into this discussion. If you are unhappy with instruction save that for another forum. We are talking about facilities. I've lived in many places around the country, and property taxes here are pretty low. Maybe that is why we have substandard school facilities, but of course so many people don't want to pay for anything that doesn't benefit them personally.
Top
Do you have any legitimate reason to sak if the money is "going into the pockets of crooked school board members so they can raise property taxes even higher for the rest of us?".
I know a few of them and I think your question insults some exceptional and honest people that are doing the best they can in a really bad situation.
Reply to this Top
yes, but it is always easier to have a kneejerk reaction and accuse anyone in public service of corruption! Such intellectual laziness.
Top
It is clear that people who want a new school built want to exaggerate the cost of fixing old building. Whatever happened to "Just the facts" style of reporting? Everyone wants to skew the numbers slightly to support their point. Unfortunately, facts are stubborn.
see-
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/254321
Even the $5M-$6M estimate seems overblown since no one has done a repair estimate. A company has been hired to find ALL the things that are wrong with the building and they did. This is the "savings" from skimping on maintenance all these years. The building didn't become unsafe in just one day. Now it is wrong of the board to pile on everything into this pool to absolve themselves of the responsibility to maintain the buildings. Look no further than old BMS building, yet no one fired for losing tens of millions for the county.
The cost of repairing is smaller than new BHS proponents have you believe. Building a new school takes 5 years (why? don't ask!). Is it wise to keep many kids in trailers and buses while another building rots?
Build a new BHS? Definitely. But not under duress, with no cash on hand to pay for it. Be more prudent with OPM: repair old BHS, start saving for new BHS and keep the debt load for the county low. Don't assume the party will last forever.
Reply to this Top
I am in agreement with you that BHS should be repaired for the proposed $14 million prize tag. The district already has $9 million banked from other projects, along with insurance money from the accident. This would allow the displaced middle schoolers to return to their rightful building far ahead of the other "options."
"...Colin Baker, another teacher at BHS, concurred, advocating for the building of a new school building.
“My wife will not let my kids in that building,†Baker said. “This is a psychological thing for parents. Our parents will not feel safe sending our kids to that building.â€Â
Dear Mr. Baker,
Thanks for advocating for all students. Try having your middle school kids uprooted from their home school, sent to a substandard building in another town, and told they should be happy about inhabiting a facility deemed "unfit" for the high schoolers. Then come talk to me about "psychological things...."
Reply to this Top
RAISE MY TAXES and build new schools. You people who dont want your taxes raised are cheap... want a superior school system well then pay the taxes that northern virginia pays.
Reply to this Top
Hey I have an idea, how about charge tuition? I don't have kids so why should I have to pay for yours to get educated?
Reply to this Top
So you don't see any way that you benefit from having an educated population? Now that's a limited perspective!
Reply to this Top
I'm all for education. If I had kids I would educate them myself but that's another story. I don't mind paying for public schools I really don't but that's a really really nice football stadium they got there at the new school on prices fork road isn't it?
But seriously you want me who has no kids to pay the exact same proportion as you who has lets say 3 or 4 kids? How is that even remotely fair especially given that you are already getting tax breaks for having children?
Top
Thought provoking comment. While those of us without children do subsidize the education of others' children, the return is that good schools usually have a positive impact on property values.
Reply to this Top
I guess the only positive benefit is something that helps us personally? If you don't understand the benefit of an educated population just go to the third world and see how it all works. There are plenty of roads in this county that I never drive on, gosh I guess I shouldn't have to pay taxes that help maintain them! Such short-sighted views here...
Top
Thank you Montgomery County residents for one more reason to rent, especially since we plan to homeschool.
Reply to this Top
According to my monitoring, millions of persons in the world receive the <a href="http://goodfinance-blog.com/topics/business-loans">business loans</a> at good banks. So, there is good possibilities to get a credit loan in every country.
Reply to this Top