If passed, the proceeds from the tax would provide $8 million over fours years to fund an expansion of the college.
Trinity is not the only one to support the sales tax. The referendum has received support from Asheboro City Council and the boards of commissioners from Franklinville, Staley and Ramseur, along with the Randolph County Board of Education, the RCC Foundation Board of Directors and others.
The Archdale-Trinity Chamber of Commerce Board of directors approved a resolution in support of the referendum on Feb. 16.
The referendum could be discussed at the Feb. 23 Archdale City Council meeting, too late for this week’s edition, and has been endorsed by the Guil-Rand Fire Department.
All have agreed that voters’ approval would help the county’s unemployed people.
“We’re full, but we have students lined up at the door, we have unemployed people lining up at the door,” Shackleford told the Council. “There are 8,000 unemployed people in Randolph County and 44 percent of those are enrolled at RCC. I’m not asking you to support RCC, I’m asking you to support Randolph County.”
Shackleford’s presentation in Trinity was part of a tour of the county to promote the quarter-cent (one-fourth of a penny or $0.0025) sales tax. The proceeds would pay for the expansion of the college over the next four to five years. Specifically, it would be used to renovate the Klaussner building, purchased for the college by the County Commissioners in June 2008. The renovation will allow the college to double its machine training, add a new business center and create the facilities to house its new industrial engineering program.
Currently, the only other industrial engineering classes are in Raleigh or Charlotte.
The school needs the money the tax would generate, he continued, because only the 15 percent of its budget that comes from the county can be used for capital projects and maintenance needs. The other 85 percent, which comes from the state, can only be used for operations.
“We can’t use any state money for capital needs,” Shackleford reiterated. “Randolph County has just spent $80 million on two new high schools and water line projects — they can’t borrow anymore. When we asked for their help they could have said, ‘we’re sorry, we can’t help.’ They could pass a $.02 property tax increase, which is what it would take to raise the same amount of money. Or, they said we could ask voters to approve the quarter-cent sales tax.”
The Council agreed with Shackleford, and voted unanimously to issue a resolution in support of the tax.
Others also support the sales tax.
“I think if people understand the quarter-cent [tax], they’d pass it, but they don’t understand,” agreed Board of Education member Paul Guthrie. “I think the sales tax is the fairest. The poor property owner has been paying his share forever.”
“Think about all the people who come here,” County Manager Richard Wells said. “Think about the people who visit the Zoo, stay in Archdale’s hotels and eat in our restaurants — they’ll be paying our bills. Can you imagine how many people have taken a class or learned a skill at RCC over the years? It must be thousands. The counties around us all have other colleges, but not us. All we have is RCC.”
Early voting is currently under way at the county municipal building at 725 McDowell Road in Asheboro. The hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today (Feb. 25) and Friday, Feb. 26, and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27.
Voters may go to the polls from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 2, at their regular polling locations.
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