A bill that’s cleared the Senate Education Committee seeks to redistribute the sales taxes collected for school building improvements. It wouldn’t change current spending plans for counties that already have the local option sales tax, but Senator Jeff Angelo says if the bill becomes law, the sales taxes from new counties that join the list would be placed in a state fund or pool and distributed on a per-pupil basis.Angelo says counties without a local option sales tax would vote on November 4th to decide whether to levy the tax for schools. The kicker is that once the 10-year sales-tax plans for counties like Polk and Woodbury expire, voters could vote to extend ’em, but the money wouldn’t be just for local improvements and would be distributed statewide. School districts in counties which aren’t collecting the local option sales tax for school improvements have filed a lawsuit, saying the current system is unequal. Angelo says there’s no guarantee the bill would answer the concerns of those educators. Angelo says he hasn’t gotten a clear signal, but he’s hoping it would prompt the schools to drop their lawsuit. Angelo says the state needs to create a dedicated financial resource for school infrastructure projects.Angelo says it’d free up money for teacher salaries and reading programs.
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