During a meeting Tuesday night, Gloucester supervisors voted to update and amend the county’s FY22 budget to align with the opinion of former Attorney General Mark Herring concerning the use of county’s 1 percent sales tax.

Supervisors approved the changes by a 5-0 margin during a meeting in the colonial courthouse, with members Chris Hutson and Ken Gibson absent due to COVID protocols.

The county is transferring approximately $3.25 million from its Debt Service Fund to the School Tax Fund Reserve for Debt Services to ensure that the tax proceeds are used for eligible new school renovation and construction projects, rather than to pay down debt on projects that already been undertaken.

Originally, the budget had used part of the revenue from the 1 percent sales tax to pay old debt on the grounds that the debt was from past new construction and major renovations. The total of old debt proposed to be paid by the 1 percent sales tax was $23,302,545 over the 20-year lifespan of t...