Q&A of the Day – How Should You Vote on Palm Beach County’s Question 1?

The School District, like all local taxing authorities, has benefitted greatly from the booming local economy and property values over the past decade.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, I'm going to question motest answers to questions you
won't here anywhere else. The Q and A of the
day reaction from our government to Brian mus show, I
don't get that. Today's Q and A how should you
vote on Balm Beach County's question one? This is brought
to you by Melissa and Ashes check Mark Collections. Each

(00:21):
day I feature a listener question sent by one of
these methods. You may email me Brian Mud at iHeartMedia
dot com, hit me up on social at Brian Mud Radio.
We also use the iHeartRadio talkback feature. Just go to
w J and O or via Patriot inside of the
iHeartRadio app. Go ahead and follow it us. Once you
get there, look for the little microphone button. See it,

(00:41):
tap it. You may lay down the message right there,
maybe for a future Q and A. In today's note
is this Brian, thank you for your coverage of the
Florida amendments. I've been sharing your stories with friends online
to help inform and get the message out. Will you
be covering the Palm Beach County school sales tax proposal?
And yeah, asking you shall receive I've had requests for

(01:02):
both Palm Beach County's Question one, and also the Martin
Forever referendum in Martin County as well. I will be
covering Paul Beach County's question today, probably on Friday, Martin
County's question now in addressing what's going on within the
PBC school district in this county question one, what I
found so far is that some voters seem to be

(01:24):
either unaware of this or confused by this question on
the November ballot. There are a couple of reasons that
seems to be the case. One, Palm Beach County's Question
one from the August primary election. Two what the effect
of the proposal, if passed would be. And it's been
brought to my attention that searches for Palm Beach Counties

(01:46):
Question one most commonly bring up the question voters approved
in the August primary election extending the ability for the
county to continue to offer select tax breaks and incentives
for businesses to relocate or expand within the community. So
here's the deal. November's election, It's a new election and
with it you got a new county. Question one. This

(02:08):
has to do with an extension of a special sales
tax sought by the Palm Beach County School districts. So
here's the deal. In twenty sixteen, Palm Beach County's voters
approved a one percent special local option sales tax for
the school district that was presented as the penny tax.
The special sales tax was approved for ten years. It's

(02:29):
set to expire December thirty first of twenty twenty five.
Should that happen, Palm Beach County sales tax would drop
by one percent rather than allowing the entire special sales
tax to expire. However, the Palm Beach County School District
is seeking to retain half of the sales tax increase
through what they are now calling the halfpenny sales tax.

(02:51):
So here's how this is set to appear on vetter ballots.
It is entitled County Question one Palm Beach County Schools, Security, Technology,
Facilities and Infrastructure one half sent Sales surve Tax, and
the summary that appears on balance is this to support

(03:13):
educational opportunities for students by upgrading and enhancing safety and
security of schools, classroom technology and equipment, school buildings and facilities,
and school buses for Palm Beache County traditional public and
chartered public schools. Shall the school board levy a one
to half cent sales surve tax beginning January one, twenty
twenty six, and by law automatically ending December thirty one,

(03:37):
twenty thirty five, with oversight of all funds by an
independent committee of citizens and experts. Okay, so the financial impact,
as noted by the school district is said to be this.
They say. If approved by voters, this strong Schools, Strong
Committees Communities measure is anticipated to generate two hundred million
dollars annually or two billion dollars over ten year years.

(04:01):
They say it will support school security, technology, facilities, and infrastructure. Okay,
so let's discuss the merits of the proposal, and I'll
start by saying that I reject the premise of this proposal.
Something that's been an issue for me dating back to
the twenty sixteen referendum was and is the lack of
intellectual honesty in the advancement of the proposal. It is

(04:26):
presented in an inherently dishonest manner, just as the twenty
sixteen tax was not a penny, but rather a one
percent sales tax increase on purchases within Palm Beach County.
The current proposal is for a half percent sales tax
increase on purchases. It was presented in the context of
a penny and now a halfpenny for marketing purposes to

(04:49):
attempt to gain passage of the proposal. It's intellectually dishonest
to tell voters that the proposed sales tax is only
a halfpenny with greater than ninety nine percent of transactions
are higher than one dollar in value. Remember, the only
way this is going to be a halfpenny is if

(05:10):
you buy something for a buck. So, following the passage
of the twenty sixteen referendum, I had a listener reach
out to me saying that they thought the sales tax
increase would only be a penny per purchase because they
called it the penny sales tax, So they thought it
was just when I buy something, it will be a penny.
I'm okay with that, as opposed to the one percent

(05:31):
of the total purchase price which they noticed when they
made a large purchase. I'm sure they weren't alone. The
least the school district, which is tasked with education and
informing our children, should do is to be open and
transparent in informing the community about the cost of the
proposed tax consumers as opposed to using a misleading marketing approach.

(05:55):
But that's not the only factor calling the proposed special
sales tax question. Give you an idea here. The twenty
sixteen to twenty seventeen budget for the Palm Beach County
School District was presented at just under two and a
half billion dollars. Okay, so you go back to the
onset of where we were with the one percent sales

(06:17):
sex increase. The budget back then just under two and
a half billion dollars. The Palm Beach County School District's
proposed budget for the twenty twenty five to twenty six
school year is just under five point seven billion two
and a half to five point seven billion. The Palm
Beach County School District's student population in twenty sixteen was
one hundred and ninety five thousand, four hundred and fifty

(06:40):
five students. The district's most recent student population count was
one hundred and eighty seven thousand, nine hundred and forty
three students. The district suggests this student population may rise
by approximately nine hundred students over the next year. So
I will take that into account when I boiled this
down for you to put this in perspective, Here's what

(07:00):
we've seen with the school district over the past decade.
The student population has decreased by three point four percent.
The pal Beach County School District spending has increased by
two hundred and twenty eight percent. Again, three point four
percent decrease in students, two hundred and twenty eight percent

(07:22):
increase in spending, and they're saying, and we need a
special tax still wile the superintendent did one say he
needs lawyer's guns and money. So maybe he's trying to
get a third of that. Wow, that's a joke. There
you go, Well he intended it, that's the joke, certainly,
I know, But I mean, you frame it this way,

(07:44):
and it's kind of like any questions. The school district,
like all local taxing authorities, has benefited greatly from the
booming local economy and property values over the past decade.
There is no valid justification for a special school sales
tax continuation at any level. There's absolutely none. Uh, there's
I just lave it at that