news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Guilford County residents must pay nearly $1 billion in county bond debt, and the Board of Commissioners says that it will come through some form of tax.

Though the referendum on a quarter-cent sales tax failed by a 3-to-1 margin in May, the board is putting the tax before voters again in the fall election.

So what’s different?

This time, commissioners pledge the money would pay school bond debt, and a campaign of businesspeople and economic developers will try to sell voters on the tax.

“And they do feel, as I, that this quarter-cent sales tax will be the most appropriate way to pay back that school debt,” said Anita Bachmann , coordinator of Citizens for a Better Guilford, which is pushing the tax.

On Tuesday, they will unveil billboards supporting the tax. Early voting will begin Oct. 16, and Election Day is Nov. 4.

If the tax passes, the board committed the estimated $16 million  in tax revenue to pay school construction debt, particularly $457 million  in voter-approved school bonds, though they said so in a nonbinding resolution.

Several commissioners say only a property tax rate increase or a sales tax will pay for the schools.

“And if any commissioners were at any time to deviate from what they told the people, I would hope that the voters would vote them out of office the next time for falsely misleading them,” said Commissioner Billy Yow on dedicating the sales tax to schools.

Yow even wanted a 1-cent sales tax for the school debt, but that didn’t make it past the local delegation in the General Assembly.

Commissioner Melvin “Skip” Alston doesn’t believe that the quarter-cent tax will pass this fall, even on the second try. He’s more interested in streamlining county operations to save money and make bond payments, he said.

“More people are going to say that the tax is a tax,” he said, “and see the $700 billion to bail out our big government, and we’re looking at it to bail out Guilford County.”

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com