Hillsborough County voters will decide in November whether to renew the school district’s half-penny sales tax, a levy that has funded $97 million in campus improvements this summer alone.
With students on break, construction crews are working at schools across the district, including a complete heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning overhaul at Steinbrenner High School.
“It’s chillers, it’s air handlers, those things that control where A/C is going in each room,” said Chris Farkas, Hillsborough Schools deputy superintendent.
Farkas said the tax, first approved by voters in 2018, funds nine large-scale projects similar to the Steinbrenner renovation, along with 27 medium-sized projects and more than 90 smaller ones covering everything from repaving to new playground equipment.
Jose Valiente, chair of the Citizens Oversight Committee formed after the 2018 referendum, said the volunteer panel of independent residents reviews all spending generated by the tax.
“I want you to visualize half a penny and realize that it’s painless,” Valiente said. “It’s not much, you break a penny in half, it’s not much, but when you start collecting a bunch of pennies, it adds up, and we have collected over $1 billion and have spent almost that amount.”
Valiente said the funded projects have proven essential to maintaining schools districtwide, adding that committee members have repeatedly asked themselves what the district’s facilities would look like without the revenue.
Voters will decide in November whether to continue the tax and the improvements it funds.
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