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Clemons, Rice claim budget costly in long run

Gloucester’s Superintendent of Schools Dr. Walter Clemons and the county’s school board chairman Robin Rice argue that the county’s proposed budget will cost taxpayers more in the long run.

While the current budget funds the school’s approved Capital Improvements Plan, it ignores the need for the high school’s total renovation which will only become more costly over time, they claim.

In the proposed budget, which is anticipated to be approved by the board of supervisors on Monday, 100-percent of the one-percent sales tax will be used on school projects, with the majority of the funds to be spent on new projects. In the first year of the sales tax use, $3.4 million of the estimated $5 million will be used for existing eligible school debt.

County Administrator Brent Fedors said, "Of the $107 million or so of projected sales tax revenues estimated incoming between July 1, 2021 and the expiration date of the tax, we anticipate approximately $26.4 million to $29.6 million going ...

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