By Dave Taylor

The petition to send the school system’s proposed nickel tax to a possible countywide vote has been verified.

County Clerk Trina Ogle notified the school board Monday that her office had checked and validated the signatures on the petition and that there were enough to send it back to the board to decide what to do next, which it will do in a special meeting on July 5 at 5:30 p.m.

“We had 697 signatures that were valid,” she said. To be successful, the petition needed a minimum of 432 signatures, which equaled 10 percent of the number of county voters who participated in the last presidential election. The petition was turned in with 748 signatures, but 51 of those were deemed invalid.

“Basically the reason for rejection was they weren’t a registered voter or they left off their date of birth off of the petition and for verifying purposes we had to have the date of birth, the KRS says that,” said Ogle.

The verified petition now means the future of the nickel tax is now in the hands of the school board.

“Now we’ll validate the petition and the number of signatures they have and the board will make a decision on whether to either drop it, put it to a special vote or put it on the general ballot in November,” said superintendent Kyle Estes.

“I think we’ve got 10 days from yesterday (Monday) to make a decision,” he said.

“If they want it to go to special election then we have from yesterday (June 28), 35 to 45 days to put on a special election,” said Ogle. “It has to be no less than 35 days, no more than 45 days.”

“And it has to be on a Tuesday,” she said, “so the election would be either on August 2 or August 9. Those are the only two days within that 35 to 45 day window.”

A special election would be run just like any other election, she said, with all 10 precincts open from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and with all the normal expenses that accompany the process, which she estimated run about $23,000.

“That’s about what it costs to have an election so therefore the school will have to incur that cost,” she said.

If the board elects to send it to a vote in the general election, they will have to file a yes or no question with the county clerk and it will simply be added to the normal ballot.

“They have to file the question by the August 9 deadline and then it would be a part of the regular election and the school board would incur no cost,” she said.

Estes said the board would take up the question at the special meeting Tuesday.

“I can’t say any way as far as which direction the board is leaning at this time,” he said. “There are advantages and there are disadvantages no matter which way you go. It’s just figuring out which would be the most advantageous for the board.”

The school board first began the push for the new tax in late March, when it realized that the school facilities were needing more repairs and upgrades than the board would ever have money to do, even if they had no debt.

The board passed a resolution at its March meeting stating its intent to implement the new tax, and then superintendent Kyle Estes and the board set out on a campaign to explain the need for the tax, and to receive feedback from the public.

A nickel tax would assess an extra five cents per $100 of assessed value on real and tangible property, and the money would be earmarked only for future capital improvements, including a possible new middle or high school.

Both the middle school and high school are aging, Estes said, and that with the new tax it would still be 10 or more years before revenues would allow something to be built, and at that time those schools would be about the same age as the former Hawesville and Lewisport elementary schools that were replaced in the early 2000s. Those buildings were in poor shape, with part of Hawesville Elementary having collapsed and been closed off, and the state had to step in with emergency funds to help build North Hancock Elementary School.

Estes said the county should be proactive and begin setting aside money for the prospect of new future buildings rather than hope the state can come in with last minute funds if the structures get bad enough. But even without constructing any new buildings, the middle school and high school need $15.2 million in upgrades to meet the specs set out by the Kentucky Department of Education, which is much more than the board’s current $2 million bonding capacity.

The nickel tax is necessary either way, he said, because the expenses of updating the buildings far surpasses the board’s revenue.

Opposition to the tax had a 45-day window in which they could garner enough signatures to force the board to either recall the idea entirely, or put it to a countywide vote either in the November general election or in a special vote. The petition drive was spearheaded by Darrell Moffitt, who said he simply wanted the idea of the tax to be voted on by everyone in the county, not just those on the school board.

The petition committee gathered signatures and said that some in the county signed even though they supported the tax just because they wanted to see it voted on, while others were opposed to the tax all together.

The board’s special meeting will be Tuesday, July 5 at 5:30 p.m. at the board of education office. It is a public meeting.