Gainesville city commissioners Gail Johnson and Gigi Simmons had skeptical questions regarding the half-cent florida sales tax on Thursday.
The half-cent florida sales tax might be a referendum for the ballot in November. The main target of your tax will be to modernize and revitalize public schools around Alachua County. Whether or not it passes, it can produce about $22 million across the next 12 years starting in January.
Six from the seven commissioners were present for the meeting, and gave their support for any proposal. Mayor Lauren Poe has previously mentioned his support for it?but was absent in the meeting.
Johnson was thinking about the makeup of an committee overseeing the way the $22 million will be spent.
“The bit of this that concerns me is we have not spoke of what that oversight committee- who’s with that, who’s deciding on the individuals who take that,” she said. “That’s a large question mark and ‘what if’ to me that sometimes can be a sore point when deciding the dimensions of pots of clinking coins will be spent.”
Alachua County School District spokeswoman Jackie Johnson assured her that this school board are going to be choosing who’ll be over the committee, even so the district wants for some other organizations for help. She said the roles of the committee aren’t to decide on the projects, but to oversee just how the money is going to be spent and that here is the plan per project is followed.
Gail Johnson is hoping the varsity board would consider including people with the communities that will be affected by far the most by run-down schools. She stated that equity is vital to her. Jackie Johnson said the committee will hold a workshop yearly couple of weeks.
“How are the priorities assessed?” Gail Johnson also asked.
“That is to get determined,” Jackie Johnson said, stating the university board are going to be getting a private consultant to determine which schools receive priority. “Obviously the colleges which might be in the worst shape receives the primary benefit.”
The school board is with the beginning stages from the bidding process for design have Metcalfe Elementary School, Howard Bishop Junior high school and Idylwild Elementary School. These are “probably want to one of the most more manual workload,” Jackie Johnson said.
Simmons also gave her support to the florida sales tax. But she made a correlation involving the ages and conditions of some lower-grade schools.
“Will those schools often be a priority?” she asked.
“Not based technically with their grade,” Jackie Johnson said. “It’ll just turn out performing exercises like that. But we didn’t intentionally use and say, ‘OK, let’s do the F and D schools first.'”
If the facilities at lower-grade schools are very poor, Simmons said, she had hope the institution board will make them important.
“Motivation crucial,” Jackie Johnson said. “If they have a wonderful destination to visit learn, that might make a huge difference.”
