CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Charlottesville City Council unanimously approved a resolution to initiate the referendum on a 1% sales tax increase, which will be voted on in the November general election, during its meeting on Monday.

If passed, the revenue from the tax increase will go toward capital projects for the construction and renovations of the city’s public schools.

Vice Mayor Natalie Oschrin told WINA Morning News on Tuesday there are “a lot of school construction projects we want to work on,” and this tax will go directly to those projects.

“We’ve got deferred maintenance that we need to work on, safety improvements for the schools, better facilites for students and teachers, and that’s really important,” she said.

The city previously explored how they could use this revenue during a work session earlier this month, in which Public Works presented eight potential projects CCS could fund, including a renovation and new addition to Charlottesville High School, the construction of a new school at Jackson-Via Elementary, and other renovations across five elementary schools as well as CATEC.

Because of the previous work session, the discussion on the resolution was brief on Monday, but some councilors did take the opportunity to share their approval of the tax increase.

“There used to be fairly significant contributions from the state that went away some years ago,” Councilor Lloyd Snook said. “There [have been] only very small contributions since, and places all over the state, counties all over the state, cities all over the state, are having this problem and this is, basically, a step we need to take because the state abdicated it.”

City Manager Sam Sanders said before the vote there is additional work to be done in “settling on the scope” for the schools’ facilities development program, and the city has been in regular conversation with representatives from CCS.

“There is a scope that needs to be determined based on what we think the proceeds of this tax to be over the 20-year period,” Sanders said.

He added the city has the ability to expand that money using its bond capacity and said staff is working with its financial advisors on the possibility. Doing so would mean restricting the council’s ability to pass other bond items for themselves.

“There is some wrestling with what we need to be able to identify for the public’s benefit as to what a scope is,” Sanders said.

He added the priority is to conclude that conversation at the city’s joint work session with the school board on Aug. 12, in which both boards will finalize “what we would like to make available for public consumption as to the purpose of the tax proceeds.”

“The goal would be to limit the number of schools that we are going to be able to touch so that the public can appreciate why they are passing a tax on themselves,” Sanders added.

If passed, the tax would likely go into effect sometime between March and early May.

The city approved the referendum less than a week after the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors did the same. The referendum was included in the Virginia State Budget and will need to be considered and voted on each municipality.