No answers on how USCB, TCL would spend $28 million

While the Beaufort County school board has decided to ask voters in November to increase the sales tax by 1 percent, it remains to be seen how about $28 million of the revenue would be spent.

The school board voted Saturday to invite the University of South Carolina Beaufort and the Technical College of the Lowcountry to come before the board and say whether they would like to receive money from the sales-tax increase, which is expected to generate about $282 million over 10 years.

The board has said it could share up to 10 percent of that money with the two institutions — about $14.1 million piece. But neither college has said exactly how they would spent their portion.

The uncertainty has frustrated at least one Beaufort County school board member.

“I’m not sure why we would divert that money to those institutions as opposed to using it either in the district or using it for tax relief,” board member David Striebinger said Wednesday. “And I’m not sure I’ve gotten a clear answer other than that they’re partners with us.”

Striebinger voted in favor of inviting the colleges to come before the board, but only to hear what they have to say, he said. Board member Michael Rivers was the sole opposing vote Saturday. Board chairwoman Mary Cordray, USCB’s budget director, recused herself and JoAnn Orischak was absent.

Also on Saturday, Striebinger and Rivers were the sole votes, 8-2, against putting the sales tax on the November ballot at all.

Citizens Advocating Responsible Education, a community group that has been critical of the school district’s leadership, has also spoken out against the sales tax. Tuesday, group representative told board members that it had received largely negative feedback from the public during the group’s three public listening sessions.

One of the common questions CARE received from the more than 100 attendees was why the district would allocate money to USCB and TCL when the colleges already receive state funding, according to the community group.

On Wednesday, Superintendent Jeff Moss said the district already partners with both institutions in a number of ways, such as the Building a Better Beaufort Scholarship program that ensures qualified district graduates can attend TCL tuition-free. He also noted district students’ increased participation in dual-enrollment programs, which has increased from 170 participating students in 2014 to 315 last year, according to the district’s last state report card.

He added that the district’s referendum is modeled after a 2008 Horry County sales tax proposal, which shared money with Coastal Carolina University and Horry-Georgetown Technical College.

“Education doesn’t stop once a student graduates,” Moss said.

Striebinger, however, said he thinks voters may get the wrong impression if the district asks for more money than it would spend on its own.

“It means we’re collecting more money than we need because we have enough to give away, so to speak,” he said.

Both colleges have already requested money from another 1-percent sales tax increase proposal that Beaufort County is considering putting on the November ballot.

TCL has asked for $11.6 million to build a 25,000-square-foot Culinary Arts Teaching Institute and $2.5 million to renovate an empty administrative building to expand its health sciences offerings.

Richard Gough, president of TCL, said his board voted Wednesday to request to join the school district’s sales-tax proposal, though he said he’s still not sure how their portion of the ballot question would read. He says TCL may request $12 million to build a regional workforce training center at its New River campus, though he would prefer to keep the wording of the referendum open ended in case the county’s potential sales tax fails.

Gough also said TCL has wanted to build the regional workforce center for at least two years, predating the school district’s offer to join its sales tax.

“I personally would label them as ‘needs’,” he said.

Meanwhile, USCB has asked the county’s commission for $12 million to renovate its Osher Lifelong Learning Center in Beaufort and to build two new locations of the center in Bluffton and on Hilton Head Island.

The university is also getting a $24.5 million campus on Hilton Head, funded entirely by town property taxes that would otherwise go to the county, school district, town, university and Hilton Head Island Public Service District.

Reached Wednesday, USCB spokesperson Kerry Jarvis would say only that the university is still discussing joining the school district’s sales-tax proposal.

The school board has until Aug. 15 to finalize a referendum question.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 5:55 PM with the headline "No answers on how USCB, TCL would spend $28 million."