In a matter of weeks, Dr. Kevin Carson, the Woodbridge School District superintendent and president of the Delaware Chief School Officers Association, plans to draft a model piece of legislation that would help raise money for area schools.
Carson and the association hope, with the support of area school district officials, to lobby state legislators sometime this spring or summer to introduce the legislation that would allow Sussex County to charge fees to developers who impact nearby school districts. The enabling legislation, however, would only be a first step in getting an ordinance passed in Sussex County, where it would inevitably face some opposition.
“Every time we think about raising money we put it on the homeowner,” said Dale Dukes, a Democrat from Laurel and recently-elected County Council president who instead supported a sales tax. “I don’t support this at this point.”
Carson, to whom the comment was directed at a council meeting last month, said he hopes to make a partner of council, which would eventually have to support the ordinance if it hopes to gain approval, before talks with state legislators. Others on council, including George Cole (R-4th) support the concept of an impact fee.
“I think that’s the beauty of the system; being able to talk about what we like and what we don’t like,” Carson said this week, adding, though, that “There’s a mechanism to help out school districts in New Castle County and Kent County, and we think there should be one in Sussex County.”
The idea behind the potential future ordinance would be to tax developers — and undoubtedly future development residents — who impact area infrastructure through this fee rather than long-time area homeowners who fund schools through referendums and tax increases.
In Indian River School District, where district officials have undertaken major building and renovation projects in recent years at the blessing of district taxpayers, a potential ordinance might come too late to provide any immediate economic benefit.
“On our long-range scale, our construction has been funded,” district Finance Director Patrick Miller said. District taxpayers have approved three tax increases in six years to begin almost $90 million of building and renovation projects. “What new initiatives are we going to have? At this point in time, we haven’t finished any of those evaluations and none of our buildings are exceeding capacity.”
Still, despite hesitation and questions regarding the distribution of collected money, Miller and Indian River Superintendent Dr. Susan Bunting seemed to support the concept.
“I would like to see the people who are coming in and impacting the infrastructure help us provide new infrastructure,” Bunting said. “Schools are a part of that.”
Carson said he hopes to base his draft on the Kent County model — the more profitable of the two — where developers pay a surcharge, based on a percentage of the price of construction, added to building permit fees.
Fees on one $250,000 home in unincorporated Kent would raise $3,125 for the school fund, Sussex County officials said at a recent meeting. Districts impacted because of the development can then use the funds for state-approved capital building projects, Sussex County Administrator Dave Baker said.
In New Castle, Baker added, the fee is only charged to developments that officials decide directly impact schools and force them to exceed their existing capacity. Both programs are government-administered.
According to numbers presented at a recent council meeting, Kent County’s program is significantly more profitable. New Castle County’s program, which was implemented in 1999, has only raised $4 million in five years. Kent County officials, who successfully lobbied for enabling state legislation last year before implementing the program, expect to raise $3 million to $4 million annually, Baker said.
State legislation and a county ordinance would be needed to implement such a fee in Sussex County.
“It has a lot of potential to help school districts,” Bunting said. “We need a carefully laid-out plan … of how the money would be distributed. We would like to hear that piece first.”
After one rejection, Indian River district residents approved a referendum and a tax increase on May 23, 2000, to allow school officials begin a $67 million project to build the new Indian River and Sussex Central high schools and perform renovations on nine other district schools, according to Miller. In March of 2004 — and after another rejection — district taxpayers approved another tax increase, allowing officials to begin a $17.89 million project to add air conditioning units to those nine buildings and additional classrooms at Lord Baltimore Elementary.
And on March 28, 2006, district residents approved the most recent tax increase, in part, to replace roofs on three district schools — a $4.1 million project. Tax increases — as would the fees accumulated from a potential ordinance — help districts cover the local portion of the building projects, which accounts normally for about 20 percent of the total price tag.
“The mechanisms about how the money is going to be distributed is going to be a more interesting discussion that what the initial fee or percentage should be,” Miller said. “I’m very concerned about equitable distribution.”