School board to ask voters for $3.5 billion

Benjamin Grove

Friday, May 29, 1998 | 9:54 a.m.

The School Board on Thursday paved the way for a record-breaking school bond that would generate roughly $3.5 billion and build an estimated 88 new schools over the next 10 years.

Hotels would pay about $662 million in room taxes and home buyers would pay about $356 million in real estate taxes.

But property taxpayers would shoulder most of the burden -- paying $2.5 billion -- through a new state law that allows school districts, if they gain voter approval, to freeze property taxes. Such a freeze would prevent property tax rates from reverting to previous lower levels despite the retirement of old bonds.

School officials say they hope county voters on Nov. 3 will understand their desperate need for schools in the fastest growing district in the nation.

"This represents the long-term solution to an ongoing problem," Superintendent Brian Cram said.

School officials keyed on several statistics Thursday to make their case:

* A projected growth in student enrollment from 190,822 this year to 347,544 by 2008-09.

* A need for an estimated 88 new buildings ($2.5 billion), rehabilitations and modernizations ($854 million) and new school sites ($115 million).

Officials pointed out that in the past decade, the district -- the nation's ninth largest -- has built 99 schools. The growth figures drew several sighs and gasps from the audience.

"It's steady, sustained, continual growth," Pat Herron, assistant superintendent for facilities, told the board.

School Board members, who reviewed the plan before the meeting, said they were sold on the strategy. They approved it 7-0.

"It's a solid program," board member Ruth Johnson said.

Others weren't so sure.

Glenn Nelson, chairman of the group Nevada Concerned Citizens, said he doubted the district's projection figures.

"In 20 years in Las Vegas, I've seen a boom and bust in this town," Nelson said. "I think you're going to have a hard sell on this bond."

The plan represents an innovative method for financing school construction.

"This is considered state-of-the-art across the country," Cram said.

In the past, districts could build schools only after voters approved bond issues. Voters approved a $605 million bond issue in 1994 and a $643 million bond issue in 1996.

Then last year, lawmakers created a legal mechanism that allows school districts to freeze property tax rates with voter approval.

Property taxpayers now pay 55.34 cents for every $100 of assessed valuation for school construction. That amount would decrease as old school bonds are retired.

But school officials are proposing to freeze that rate for 10 years to allow for a constant flow of money for building new schools and fixing old ones. It would eliminate the need for the district to ask voters for bonds every few years.

School officials said they want to assure voters that the money will be well spent and the construction well managed. Several "checks and balances" guarantee that, they said.

* The county's Debt Management Commission must approve the plan.

* A newly created legislative panel, the Oversight Panel for School Facilities, must evaluate the expenditures. The committee every three years would review whether the district needed all the money.

* The School Board would approve expenditures.

The new legislative panel and the debt commission, which must approve tax changes, are set to review the plan June 4.

"This is an awful lot of money," board member Lois Tarkanian said. "It's something that makes you think very carefully before you vote for it. But you do have the checks and balances. If we don't have the need for it, we don't spend the money for it."

School officials said that if voters do not approve the plan, they will be continue to ask voters for multimillion school bonds every few years.

"If this does not pass, we will be back with a vengeance," Joyce Haldeman, the district official who monitors bond campaigns, said.

One principal said she was fearful for the future if voters defeat the measure.

"If it does (fail), this will be a community in crisis," Bonanza High School Principal Sue DeFrancesco said. Students at Bonanza attend classes in four portable classrooms.

"The effects will be exponential. It's scary."