By MIKE KRAFCIK
6 News Reporter
ALCOA (WATE) – Alcoa residents will be voting on whether to raise the city's sales tax.
If approved, it would go up by half a cent, with the revenue funding a new $30 million Alcoa High School. City commissioners put this increase on the ballot raising it from 2.25% to 2.75%, which is the maximum allowed by state law.
Supporters say the half-cent increase is as much as paying an extra 50 cents on a $100 grocery bill.
Throughout the different neighborhoods in the city, it's hard to miss all the different yards signs supporting the increase. "I'm going to vote for it, I think they need a new high school," said Herb Effler, an Alcoa resident.
City officials say a sales tax increase is the best way to increase revenue for the city to pay debt service on the almost $30 million high school.
"It's paid in small amounts, as you purchase things, and it's paid by everyone who shops and visits in Alcoa, those who stay in hotels," said Mark Johnson, Alcoa's city manager.
The school system plans to build on 13 acres next to the existing high school. Portions of the school were first built in 1939.
"Our high school right now is overcrowded and our school system is on the verge of being overcrowded," said Brian Bell, the Alcoa City Schools director.
Bell said the new state-of-the art school could accommodate around 1,000 students and would be ready for a new STEM program.
The plan would call for grades to be reconfigured, allowing middle school students to move into the current high school.
Pre-K through 2nd grade would move into the elementary school. Third, fourth and fifth grade students would move into the Alcoa Middle School building. "That will trigger Alcoa going into a three school system to a four school system," Bell said. Bell he's cautiously optimistic the sales tax referendum will pass.
Some who shop in Alcoa don't like the idea of an increase. "People who have large families, I was born in a large family, and groceries aren't cheap to begin with," said Ronald Kellogg, a Louisville resident.
If the referendum doesn't pass, another option to get the funding could be a property tax increase. This action doesn't require a ballot referendum, but only approval from city commission.
"I don't think it would be a popular choice for the business community, property owners and industrial community that we have in Alcoa," said Johnson.
"We're paying a tremendous amount of property taxes already," Effler said.
If the sales tax referendum does pass, construction could start as early as November and the school could be ready by January 2015.
