by Jackie Nunnery
LANCASTER—Many agree that Lancaster County needs new schools, but the question of how they get paid for is not so easily agreed upon.
While the county’s reliance on the real property tax for revenue has become a concern and the board of supervisors has begun to look at ways to diversify the county’s tax strategy, realistically those taxes would only pay for services already in place.
The board is now looking to the General Assembly to provide help by giving the county the authority, through a voter referendum, to levy an additional sales and use tax specifically to pay for new schools, according the board chairman Jason Bellows.
As originally written, House Bill 1634 would have allowed all counties within the Commonwealth to impose an additional local sales and use tax to fund capital projects for…
