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As vote approaches Tuesday, supporters optimistic for passage of Hernando schools sales tax

 
Jo Ann Hartge, left, president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association, instructional coach Melinda Barrett and teacher Lucy Tucker try to drum up support last month in Spring Hill for the half-cent sales tax for schools.
Jo Ann Hartge, left, president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association, instructional coach Melinda Barrett and teacher Lucy Tucker try to drum up support last month in Spring Hill for the half-cent sales tax for schools.
Published Sept. 3, 2015

The poll results, though preliminary and completely unscientific, were nevertheless encouraging to supporters of renewing the Hernando County School District's half-cent sales tax.

"We're getting a lot of honks," said Melinda Barrett, who stood at Spring Hill Drive and Mariner Boulevard in Spring Hill last week, holding a sign imploring drivers to honk if they supported the tax.

"Once you explain to people exactly what it's for, they seem to be supporting it more," said Barrett, an instructional coach at Explorer K-8 School and first vice chairwoman of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association.

Her hope is the hope of most residents backing the tax: that voters will understand the clear differences between this funding request — the subject of a special election on Tuesday — and the Penny for Projects referendum that was decisively rejected last year.

That proposed sales tax was for twice a much, one penny for every dollar rather than a half-cent. It represented an overall tax increase, with the inclusion of an additional half-cent to be shared by Hernando County and the city of Brooksville. And most of the schools' portion in that referendum was earmarked for technology, including the widely derided idea to distribute computerized tablets to students.

The proceeds from this tax — pitched as the restoration of a decade-long half-cent sales tax that expired Dec. 31 — would go to replace $87 million worth of aging roofs, floors, awnings and air-conditioning units at schools and other district buildings.

The need is so urgent, said John Mitten, a restaurant owner and co-chairman of the political action committee formed to support the tax, that it will inevitably bleed money from programs that parents cherish if the referendum fails.

"If we don't get (the tax), the money for repairs has to come from student services, and the cuts will be significant," Mitten said. "We're talking teachers; we're talking buses; we're talking … music, art and sports programs."

Mitten, a prominent Republican, and PAC co-chairman Jimmy Lodato, the outgoing chairman of the Hernando County Democratic Executive Committee, tout the support for the tax across the political spectrum.

"I don't think you need to have a letter behind your name to understand the importance of it," Mitten said.

It has been endorsed by the DEC and organizations usually associated with Republican causes, including the Greater Hernando County Chamber of Commerce and several other business groups.

But opposition is also wide-ranging, said Brian Moore, a peace activist and perennial independent and Socialist political candidate who is against the tax. Other opponents include community gadfly Dennis Purdy and Barbara Bartlett, best known as an opponent of the United Nations' Agenda 21 sustainable development plan.

Also, the Hernando County Republican Executive Committee has declined to put its name behind the tax, Lodato said. State Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, chairman of the REC, did not return a call from the Times requesting comment.

Moore sent a long list of questions to the district about the tax, including asking whether the state is fulfilling its duties to fund schools and how much of the district's staff time is spent on bureaucratic duties rather than instruction.

He was not satisfied with the answers and said that his overall complaint is that the district has not provided enough information to justify the tax.

"It's almost like they are trying to bamboozle the public when it comes to this tax," Moore said.

Lodato, however, said there is plenty of information available, most of it on the website of the PAC, Save our Students.

Besides the list of needed replacements of air conditioners and roofs at various schools, the website includes graphs showing how money has been diverted from these items to cover operational costs during recent lean budget years.

In 2007, for example, the district spent more than $2 million on roofs; in 2012, it spent nothing.

Lodato said he, Mitten and others have worked hard to get this message across — raising $41,666 in cash and in-kind donations for the PAC, according to the most recent filing with the Supervisor of Elections Office, erecting billboards, filming commercials and giving presentations to teachers, business groups and homeowners associations across the county.

"We've been everywhere," he said.

He is cautiously optimistic the message is getting across. And so are other supporters.

Most of the people they talk to say they will support the tax. And DeeVon Quirolo, who has spread the word to Democrats, is encouraged by the large number of voters who have mailed in ballots — more than 14,000 of them as of earlier this week, or nearly 12 percent of registered voters.

"My sense is, and I don't know if it's valid or not, that people are motivated to vote for something they are for as opposed to something they are against," Quirolo said.

Contact Dan DeWitt at ddewitt@tampabay.com; follow @ddewitttimes.