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Suncoast Pasco News

Reversal Of Fortune

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THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: January 14, 2009

When people were successfully making the case for approving the Penny for Pasco one-cent special sales tax during the March 2004 referendum, voters were told the Pasco School District badly needed its 45 percent share of the tax's annual revenue - more than $400 million over 10 years - because it was swamped by a huge annual influx of students.

Five years later, Pasco County, which also gets 45 percent of the Penny, and its cities, which split the other 10 percent, are struggling with tax revenue shortages as a result of the economic slowdown. The schools are facing a loss of operating revenue as Florida lawmakers struggle to balance the state budget in response to the current hard economic realities.

All of a sudden, however, the flood of students has ebbed. The district had been adding more than 2,000 students a year in recent years. This year it only gained 246. The neighboring Pinellas School District has a falling enrollment and is closing schools.

This is an "interesting time" for the Pasco district, says its planning director, Chris Williams. It has to be careful it doesn't build too many schools, otherwise it might be forced to close schools as well, he says.

The county and cities can still build roads and other needed infrastructure elements with its Penny revenue. If, however, the big yearly enrollment increases don't return and the district doesn't have to construct as many schools as originally planned, perhaps as many as 10, will it need the Penny money that was supposed to pay for them?

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