HODGENVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The LaRue County School Board passed a property tax increase, but a petition to recall it will leave the decision up to voters.
The proposed increase is a "double nickel tax" for 10 cents per $100 of assessed property value, something the school district said is needed to address aging facilities.
“With the repairs our schools need, we’re just not able to keep up," LaRue County Superintendent David Raleigh said.
One main issue, the district said, is the LaRue County Middle School building. It opened for the 1959-60 school year and is declining. Administrators plan to move the middle school to the current high school if the tax hike passes.
"What we would like to do is then move the middle school over to the existing high school and build a new high school that will house career and technical education opportunities for our students,” Raleigh said.
Inside the middle school now, some teachers are spending part of their summer to put a band-aid on the problems.
"All along the base of my walls, there were holes in the floor, which I don’t have a problem with except that I could see the outside,” seventh-grade teacher Brandi Piper said as she lined the cracks with caulk Tuesday.
Seeing firsthand the impact the problems have on students, she and other teachers said the tax increase is necessary.
“This is all we can do... plug a hole, Piper said. "I can’t build a new school myself. If I could, I would, because my kids deserve that.”
There are several residents who oppose the tax hike, however.
Lanny Vincent, a LaRue County resident in opposition, was contacted about the special election. Due to a medical procedure, Larry couldn’t be interviewed for the story, but submitted a statement to WDRB News.
In part, Vincent said, "It is a sad state of affairs when a school administration allows the buildings to deteriorate as they have now."
His full statement continued:
"If we have a teacher applying caulking, why aren’t the maintenance personnel performing that function and why haven’t they been doing it all along? What are they doing with all the money? While the school administration complains about the maintenance on the Middle School, they still will not admit in public whether or not they will tear the Middle School down if they build a new High School, thus requiring maintenance on the Middle School.
Here’s a school administration and school board that’s going to blow approximately $24,000 for a Special Election in July when they could have had the same election, at no expense to the taxpayers, in the General Election in November. This same school board employs a contract employee $40,000 a year who has three responsibilities: (1) write an article for the local newspaper once a week (2) occasionally make a Facebook video and (3) most importantly, his job is to convince the LaRue County taxpayers to accept tax increases with no resistance to said increases. In fact, when his contract was renewed in January 2022, the LaRue County Superintendent called his work “invaluable.” Now, I would like someone to explain to me how this individual helps educate our children. I’ll wait.
Last but not least is one of my favorites. The school administration is now installing WiFi on school buses. I guess the kids need to be able to use their cell phones to call each other and play video games while they’re on the school bus. I wonder just how much that’s going to cost us. Now I’m sure that the administration will say something to the effect “well, we received a grant from so and so.” That’s their typical answer. Now, I’m confident that taxpayers somewhere is paying for that grant. There is no such thing as free money.
As taxpaying citizens of LaRue County, we are opposing this excessive proposed school tax increase for ALL the citizens of LaRue County. The school likes to use the term “we’re doing it for the kids.” Well we who oppose this tax increase are doing it for the kids as well. With inflation running at a 40 year high and gas running somewhere between $4 and $5 a gallon and diesel fuel almost $6 a gallon, we’re trying to help LaRue County taxpayers help their kids. As we all know, parents and guardians are struggling to put food on the table, a roof over their heads, clothes on their back and healthcare for our kids. Our senior citizens who are going to pay this tax are struggling as well. We’re opposing this tax for all LaRue Countians; parents, grandparents, guardians, kids, everyone."
Superintendent David Raleigh said it's up to taxpayers themselves to decide on the controversial issue at the special election. Raleigh believes passing the tax is critical.
“We feel like — given the opportunity to build new or to program around what the interests of kids are — that we could do a phenomenal job of meeting those needs,” he said.
The special election takes place July 26.
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