Ames voters will once again have an opportunity to decide whether to raise the city’s sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent in a referendum scheduled for Oct. 8. Though few ISU students have children in the Ames school system, let alone the middle school, they should vote yes on the proposal.

The sales tax increase would pay for a new middle school facility, which school board members say is a pressing need.

“The middle school is not conducive to learning,” said school board member Mary Jane Bastiaans. “It was never meant to hold this many students. It was never meant to last as long as it’s been limping by. The middle school is the most critical need we have.”

This is what the local-option sales tax is about. Funds raised by the levy are to be earmarked for school infrastructure, and if the middle school is overcrowded now, there’s no reason to believe that situation is going to be getting any better in the future.

The middle school has been expanded eight times in the last three decades because, as former Ames Superintendent Nick Johns put it, “the kids are packed in there like sardines.”

The school board has put the sales tax before Story County voters twice in the past. It was defeated both times by narrow margins.

Detractors in the past have said that a sales-tax increase is not the way to pay for school buildings. They say the money should be raised solely through property taxes since Ames residents and property owners will be the main benefactors.

The whole purpose of the sales-tax law passed by the Iowa Legislature in the 1990s, though, is to give districts a way to pay for expensive capital projects other than bonding, which raises property taxes. All of the other school districts in Story County have approved the increase and are already beginning to plan and build new facilities.

Though from a student perspective it might seem like a sales tax increase would be a far greater burden than an increase in property taxes, that is not true. Rental property owners would simply pass along the higher tax on their land to renters, which would mean higher rents for students.

Students might also feel it is unfair that they have to pay for a new middle school building when they have never attended Ames Middle School and probably will never have children attend there either.

While such sentiment may strike a chord with many students, as we have seen in past votes when both the Democratic and Republican student groups on campus worked to defeat the increase, it is a simple fact that we live in Ames. While we are Ames residents, it is on our backs tax-wise to support the school district.

Plus, plans for the new school include exercise equipment and an aquatic facility that will be open to the public, including students. For that reason, students should vote yes on Oct. 8.

Editorial Board: Dave Roepke, Erin Randolph, Charlie Weaver, Megan Hinds, Rachel Faber Machacha