New groups will lobby for 1% sales tax increase, as school districts aren’t allowed to themselves
Increasing the sales tax by 1% to fund school construction and maintenance will be a major issue on ballots across the state in November, as more than 20 localities have opted into a newly-authorized referendum.
Richmond, Chesterfield and Powhatan will all have the increase on the ballot, but state laws prohibit the localities from lobbying for its passage with taxpayer money. New groups are stepping into that void, locally and statewide.
Former Richmond City Council and School Board member Kristen Nye is helming Virginians for Modern Schools alongside Lincoln Saunders, the city’s former chief administrative officer.
Supporters say the measure would give local governments a new source of funding for aging school buildings without requiring them to rely entirely on property taxes or other local revenue.
Nye’s organization aims to provide educational materials to the localities that opted into the referendum, she said. While the needs vary from place to place, the goal remains the same: get the word out and tell voters why it’s relevant to them.
For Nye, this mission holds personal weight. She’s seen firsthand how schools can become run-down.
“My perspective has been very Richmond-centric because that's where I served, that's where my kids went to school,” Nye said. “However, this is not a unique problem to Richmond. This is across the Commonwealth.”
Nye called this referendum a “game-changer” for the counties or cities who wouldn’t otherwise have access to this kind of money. Virginia doesn’t guarantee money for school funding and maintenance, Nye said, so localities are tasked with making up the difference.
“That is completely up to the locality to figure out how to pay for school building maintenance as well as school building replacement,” Nye said. “For some localities, it's just something that is incredibly hard to achieve.”
Nye told Richmond BizSense that the group aims to raise $1 million to $1.5 million in this election cycle.
In Richmond, YES4RPS PAC will lobby locally
Richmond city leaders recently announced the launch of Yes4RPS, a political action committee dedicated to supporting the passage of the 1% sales tax referendum for Richmond Public Schools’ buildings.
At a press conference on Monday, Mayor Danny Avula, who put his children through RPS, highlighted the state of buildings in RPS, saying that 10 of the division’s schools are over 100 years old, and 72% of schools are over 50 years old.
That’s “because of disinvestment over time, where we have not kept up on the investment to keep our school buildings up and to be building new schools at the pace that we need to,” he said.
Officials said the meals tax has so far been monumental in helping to build new schools, like Cardinal Elementary, River City Middle, Henry Marsh Elementary, and the recently opened Richmond High School for the Arts.
But the referendum would help push those efforts even further, officials said. Richmond School Board Chair Shavonda Fernandez said the additional tax would generate $47 million annually and support as much as $850 million in school construction through 2034.
Kevin O’Holleran, campaign manager for Yes4RPS, said that the group is still early in its stages and is focusing on “grassroots efforts” by gathering community members to help canvass and spread the word in attempts to convince voters to vote yes on the referendum.
“That’s the most effective way to talk about the importance of this issue,” he said.
The group is also aiming to host forums discussing to inform the public on what the 1% additional tax can do. O’Holleran said that RPS will also help in that effort, while not being directly associated with the campaign.
It’s too early to know exactly how much money the group has brought in, O’Holleran said. The campaign’s financial reports will be public in September.
In Chesterfield, outreach centers on government-allowed information
Chesterfield County has unveiled billboards with its “1 for Schools” slogan lit across them. While the county can’t directly endorse the tax increase, officials say they are allowed to provide factual information on the initiative and what would result.
This specific information blast is part of its 1 for Schools outreach initiative — which looks to raise awareness of the referendum. If passed, Chesterfield is looking to accelerate projects already on the county’s radar, as well as maintain its 69 operational schools.
These billboards are part of a larger partnership between the county and Lamar Advertising. In 2020, the firm made its billboards electronic, and Chesterfield struck an agreement that allows it to display PSAs for free. A county spokesperson said past campaigns have targeted mental health, weather updates and community events.
Besides the billboards, Chesterfield is leaning on other in-house outreach to spread the word. This has included social media, blogs, podcasts, community meetings, flyers and a press conference.
“Our goal is to provide information as wide as possible so when people go to the polls, they will know what they are voting for,” a county spokesperson wrote to The Richmonder.
“This is a fast-moving campaign, and we are still evaluating other ways to get the information out.”
Nye expects more localities will follow suit next year — many of them likely in Northern Virginia, where the City of Fairfax is currently the only participant. As for Virginians for Modern Schools, Nye said it’ll stick around as long as it’s needed. The group was first reported by Axios.
“It’s been really interesting and kind of unique to see so many stakeholders — from the business community to government to advocacy organizations — all coming together on this one common issue, and I love that,” she said.
“I'm really excited to be doing this work, and I'm really excited to be working with Richmond and Chesterfield and all of the other localities to just help voters understand what they're voting on.”
Contact Eleanor Shaw at eshaw@richmonder.org. She is a Report for America corps member.
