Story County school superintendents are pushing for a vote on Feb. 15 for approval of a 1 percent sales tax increase to pay for school infrastructure costs.

Superintendents from the Story County districts decided to pursue the levy, created by the state, allowing the use of sales tax instead of only property taxes to fund school infrastructure costs, said R. Nick Johns, Ames superintendent.

“These really are the only two ways that you can build new buildings,” Johns said.

Gilbert Superintendent Doug Williams said infrastructure costs are those related to constructing new buildings and remodeling current buildings.

Johns said the levy allows for a tax of up to 1 cent for a maximum of 10 years, which would bring the sales tax in Ames to 7 cents on the dollar.

“We’ve decided to go for the full 1 cent for the full 10 years,” Johns said.

The issue must first receive support of district boards of education representing at least half of the county’s students. If passed, it would then be brought to the Story County Board of Supervisors to be put on the ballot for February.

Johns said the Ames school board, whose district comprises about 48 percent of the public school students in Story County, seems very supportive.

“They’ve not passed resolutions as of this point, but as far as I know, they’ve supported it unanimously,” he said.

Johns said he believes the increase would be a good deal for the residents of Ames because much of the sales tax revenue in Story County comes from people living outside the area.

However, the probability of the increase being passed by Story County residents is hard to tell, Johns said.

“It’s pretty early, and we haven’t done anything to get a read yet,” he said.

Williams said his district’s discussions of the issue have been supportive of taking this vote to the citizens of Story County.

“Any time you have a measure of this importance, you need to have a strong turnout,” Williams said. “People who understand the needs of public schools need to go to the polls with their support.”