CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Louisa County’s Board of Supervisors Monday night removed an agenda item from its consideration that would have allowed a referendum on a 1% sales tax hike for school construction and maintenance projects enabled under the Virginia budget.

Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams made the motion to pass the evening’s agenda with that item stricken, which was seconded by Patrick Henry Supervisors Fitzgerald Barnes, and the new agenda was passed unanimously by the Board.

There was no discussion.

“I just want to say I appreciate that,” said the lone citizen who commented about the issue in the public comment period. “Whether discussions amongst yourselves or with your constituents or in closed session evidently we came to that ain’t such a good idea. Considering all the potential tax revenue that might be coming in, the county doesn’t need another avenue to stick our hands down the pocket of the citizens, so I just want to appreciate you all for pulling that.”

Cville Right Now has reached out to determine if the Board plans to schedule the issue for another meeting, or to not consider it at all.

The Board back in April reduced the personal property tax by 15 cents citing revenue from data centers, with the possibility of reducing it further and possibly extending real estate tax rebates to property owners in the future.

Louisa is planning for a fifth elementary school as well as a new Career and Technical Education Center to locate at the high school as well as a middle school expansion.

Madison County’s Board of Supervisors has a 6 p.m. Tuesday special meeting with the 1% school sales tax referendum the only item on its agenda.

They’ve been doing capital upgrades instead of building new schools on athletics, safety, accessibility, and HVAC upgrades as well as general maintenance.

Charlottesville City Council and the School Board will meet in a Wednesday 4 p.m. work session covering the city school facilities construction program.

Councilors and board members will hear a presentation on the financial and portfolio assessment of the schools’ capital projects currently underway and those planned for the future.

That will also include a sales tax referendum discussion on what is projected in the agenda item to be able to raise approximately $15 million toward school projects.

Some of the ongoing projects in the presentation includes a Summit Elementary window replacement, Sunrise Elementary roof replacement, and Greenbrier Elementary bathroom renovation.

There’s also the work this summer on the Walker Elementary temporary pre-K center that will be replaced by an all-out Charlottesville Early Learning Center buildout at Walker.

There’s ongoing debt service of the new Charlottesville Middle School, with a ribbon-cutting on the final phase happening later this month, and a new major design project to upgrade Charlottesville High School for students who are feeding from the new CMS into the 1970s CHS facility.

“The potential revenue from this is not going to cover all of those projects, but it’s going to make a dent which is exciting,” City Councilor Natalie Oschrin told WINA Morning News Tuesday. “We’re still interpreting this so I don’t want to speak out of class about what it can be spent 0n with regards to new or ongoing construction or debt service, so that’s part of what the work session will be about, what we can allocate this go.”

Oschrin added the revenue “has a time limit. So, as soon as we activate it, we have a 20-year window to get stuff done, to earn revenue from it and spend it.”

“We want to make sure that if we go ahead this year, we’re ready to move on that so we don’t waste time,” she said.

City Council does not have the referendum yet on an agenda item, but its next meeting is July 20 where it’s possible it could appear.

Albemarle County does not have a Board of Supervisors agenda posted for its next meeting, but supervisors expect to take this issue up in their July 15 regular meeting.

The 1% tax sales tax hike could raise about $25 million toward schools’ capital projects, according to Albemarle County Schools spokesperson Jason Grant.

The county next fall will open ACE Academy Lambs Lane Center as well as Mountain View Upper Elementary School. A North Pointe area elementary school has also planned.

The School Board wants to put a new high school in the planning stages, which the Board of Supervisors has stood against saying that would break the county’s debt service limit.