There’s little disagreement that Virginia is behind on school capital improvement projects and maintenance.
More than half the state’s schools are over 50 years old and divisions often have long construction and maintenance backlogs.
About a third of the state’s cities and counties, including 10 in Hampton Roads, will ask voters in November to approve a 1% sales tax dedicated to school capital improvement. But just because jurisdictions aren’t bringing forward the referendum doesn’t mean they don’t need the funding.
They likely weighed several factors in their decision, including the timeline to get the measure on the ballot and how voters feel about their finances, said Bob McNab, the chair of the economics department at Old Dominion University.
The General Assembly passed legislation in June allowing jurisdictions to levy a 1% sales tax with voter approval. But they only had until mid-August to decide if they wanted the referendum on the November ballot.
Residents are also feeling the effects of an uncertain economy. Prices for basic goods have risen, salaries have remained relatively stagnant and consumers have little faith in the economy. So, it can be hard to ask those same people to vote for higher taxes, McNab said.
“Families are under increasing financial strain,” he said. “When you have a lot of voters saying, ‘The economy doesn't feel like it's working for me, and I think economic conditions are going to get worse,’ then asking them to increase their taxes is typically not a good voting proposition.”
Sales taxes are also inherently regressive, meaning that as a percentage, lower-income households tend to pay more in sales taxes than higher-income households, McNab said. That’s because basic goods, such as groceries and gas, make up a larger portion of a lower-income household’s budget.
Investing in school construction capital should be a community focus, said Mary Filardo, the executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, a nonprofit focused on improving public school facilities.
“There’re a lot of challenges for communities with older infrastructure, and you definitely have that here in Virginia,” she said. “Schools are meant to last 50 to100 years, but with the average age of a building now at 50, how have we not stepped up to take care of this aging infrastructure?”
Virginia invested about $1.3 billion in capital improvement, according to a 2025 report from the 21st Century School Fund. But to keep up, the state should be investing about $2.6 billion more annually, the report found.
Some of the fault falls on the state for not helping with those costs, Filardo said. Virginia provides about 9% of funding revenue for public school capital. But some states – Kentucky and West Virginia – provide 10 to25% of funding and others – New York and Wyoming – provide more than 50%.
School buildings and the land they sit on are public assets, Filardo said, which should encourage communities to be invested in properly maintaining them.
“It’s part of a way of thinking about what communities are responsible for and the importance of that and the need to not constantly defer,” she said. They should think about “this is my job as a community to have healthy, safe, inspiring school buildings that serve current kids and future generations to come.”
Cities and counties may have a better chance of getting the referendum to pass if they connect with voters and convince them that a tax increase is in their best interest, which is 'an uphill road to essentially climb,' ” McNab said.
If jurisdictions explain how the money is going to be spent, what projects it could fund and how it will supplement rather than replace current funding, voters may be more open to approving the tax.
“When you have trust with your voters, you're much more likely to get referendums passed like this,” McNab said. “But once you break that trust, then voters become very skeptical and very cynical, and these measures typically go down for defeat.”
