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Hernando Today

Teachers: Penny Sales Tax Hike Makes Cents

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: March 13, 2009

Hernando Today

BROOKSVILLE - When Jennifer Sisco heard about the rally in Tallahassee next week, she sprang into action.

Sisco spread the word and within minutes, fellow teachers and other staffers at Eastside Elementary School in Ridge Manor were digging in pockets, purses and car ashtrays for pennies that educators will bring to the capitol to send a message to lawmakers: A 1-cent sales tax hike is the answer to fill a gaping hole in the education budget.

So far, Eastside has collected nearly 5,100 pennies, Sisco said. Teachers in the county have collected more than 30,000 - well past the goal of 22,500, or one for every student here, said Joe Vitalo, president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association.

The Florida PTA and Florida Education Association have asked every school district to do the same. Educators will converge on the capitol on Wednesday to deliver the pennies during a rally in support of HB 731.

Sisco and most teachers will be in school that day, but her copper Abe Lincolns will make the trip for them.

"So we can show legislators the children are worth at least one extra cent," Sisco said.

The bill would increase the existing 6-cent sales tax to 7 cents. It's sponsored by Rep. Dwight Bullard, a high school history teacher from Miami who was elected last year.

The sales tax would sunset in three years and could raise between $6 and $10 million, which Bullard said would likely be enough time and money for the state to get through its current fiscal crunch and give lawmakers enough breathing room to come up with a longer term strategies to ensure education is properly funded.

Bullard said he has seen first hand the effects cuts to education have had on schools in relatively wealthy Dade County.

"It's a saddening sort of feeling, because the way we play with money (in the Legislature) has a direct correlation to children's education, and anything we can do to preserve that quality education for children is important," Bullard said. "It seemed like the right time and the right bill."

Education budgets throughout the state are "down to the bone right now," said Mark Pudlow, a spokesman for the FEA.

Since 2007, lawmakers have cut some $1.4 billion to education, and the outlook for next year is "not good," Pudlow said. That doesn't bode well for the learning opportunities of children in a state that already ranks near the bottom in education funding, he said.

"This is going to take people out of classrooms," he said. "It's going to mean thousands of teachers and personnel, if not tens of thousands who will lose their jobs because of these cutbacks."

Hernando County has cut $14 million from its budget and the school board has agreed in principle to another $16 million, taking such strategies as increasing student-teacher ratios and cutting assessment teachers and reading and math coaches.

The cuts may go deeper. Vitalo, the Hernando union president, says the current budget situation is akin to "parachuting in the dark."

"If we sit here and do nothing, that's what we're going to get," said Vitalo, who will take dozens of water bottles full of pennies to Tallahassee next week.

Bullard admitted the reception for the bill has "not been great," though a similar bill, SB 2582, has been filed in the by Sen. Ted Deutsch, a Democrat from Delray Beach.

Neither bill will likely get support from two members of Hernando's delegation. Both Sen. Mike Fasano and Rep. Rob Schenck said now is not the time to increase the tax burden on residents.

"In this climate, your first thought has got to be the citizenry and how hard they've been hit," Schenck said. "At this point, I'm just not in favor in that extra burden."

Fasano, through spokesman Greg Giordano, cited Hernando's 12.4 unemployment rate and high number of foreclosures.

"But he looks forward to hearing what (educators) have to say," Giordano said.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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