Orange School Board votes to extend half-penny sales tax for 10 more years

Orange County voters this November will likely be asked to keep paying an extra half-penny in sales tax so a school construction program that has renovated or replaced 136 older campuses and built 65 new ones can continue for another 10 years.

The Orange County School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to put the sales tax — which in 20 years has raised more than $4 billion for school construction — on the ballot this fall. The proposed referendum still needs approval from the Orange County Commission before it can go to voters in November. School officials hope commissioners will sign off on that next month.

Orange voters first approved the school sales tax in 2002, with 59% voting yes. The tax was renewed in 2014 with 64% of the vote.

Without another vote, the tax would sunset at the end of 2025. School officials said that would leave them without money to revamp aging schools, fix air conditioners and roofs and update technology and safety features or to build new campuses in Orange’s fast-growing communities, such as Lake Nona and Horizon West.

“It’s absolutely crucial,” said Chair Teresa Jacobs ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

During the meeting, Jacobs and the seven other board members all called the funding vital if the school district wants to continue its school building program. The district has few other sizeable sources of school construction money, so the sales tax money is needed if the district, which operates more than 200 campuses, continues to update older ones and build news when growth demands it, officials said.

“This is money that will make a huge difference,” said board member Maria Salamanca, adding that school boards in other Florida districts struggle with even basic school maintenance because they do not receive such funding.

“You see that their schools have a lot of difficulties with air conditioning, with paint, with roofs,” she said.

When the district first put the sales tax to a vote, it promised an independent oversight committee would review all construction spending. That committee’s members include experts in construction, engineering, auditing and finance, and they continue to meet.

Its chair, Patrick Knipe, sent a letter to the board that was read aloud Tuesday saying the committee “wholeheartedly supports” asking voters to renew the tax.

School leaders were pleased Mayor Jerry Demings and county commissioners agreed earlier this month not to put a transportation sales-tax referendum on the November ballot. County leaders made that call after the proposal failed to gain traction during weeks of community meetings. In 2022, a transportation sales tax referendum was handily defeated by voters, with 58% voting no.

School officials feared the school tax, though it has been popular, might be dragged down if both were on the ballot.

“I was relieved when Mayor Demings decided not to go for transportation tax,” said board member Angie Gallo, before Tuesday’s meeting.

Two taxes might have seemed too much for voters worried about the rising cost of housing and other expenses, Gallo said.

But the school tax — which means the sales tax on many items is 6.5% rather than the state-required 6% — on the ballot alone might be more palatable, she and others said, given that it is an extension and not a new tax. They also point to the visible construction boom it has spawned, with students now attending renovated or new schools across the county from Apopka to Maitland to Windermere.

“I’m in support of it,” Gallo said during the meeting. “I believe our community will be in support of it, too.”

More than half the money collected from the tax comes from tourists and others who are not Orange residents, according to OCPS.

“The burden isn’t simply on the residents, but we will benefit,” said board member Karen Castor Dentel.

The tax has made OCPS a school building leader in Florida, and this year it will open four new schools, including its 23rd traditional high school, Innovation High School. It’s slated to relieve crowding at packed Lake Nona High School.

Between 2011 and 2019, there were 130 new public schools built in Florida and 51, or 39%, were built in Orange County, according to Tindale Oliver, a consulting firm that has helped the district with school planning. No other Florida district had built more than six schools in that time period.