Union_Fan 2,148 Report Share Posted May 19, 2022 33 minutes ago, redtiger said: Thats right! Wise Co gave/cheaply sold the property to Norton so Walmart could move up there, then Norton sold the property back to Wise Co for them to build Central Pretty much. They essentially did a land swap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigWinners 1,642 Report Share Posted May 19, 2022 1 hour ago, Union_Fan said: Not entirely. The money would have gone to the newly merged school district. Not the county, nor the city. The financial benefit for Norton would have been taking the sole cost of their school system off their backs. Since Wise Co's LCI was lower, this would have reduced the tax burden on Norton's citizens if the council so chose, or they could have used the additional tax revenue that was no longer going towards the schools to fund other projects. I think the real reason Norton didn't want to consolidate was the fear of eventually losing their City status due to a declining population from not have a HS, and all the associated money that comes with that. That's how I always saw it at the bottom line, Norton was terrified of losing the "city of" and that was the big sticking point. Union_Fan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swvacsas2 15 Report Share Posted May 19, 2022 Norton would have had no savings to taxpayers if they had merged under the county plan. Money to the school district doesn't help a taxpayer when he is stuck with the cost of the school systems debt. Wise County found out the hard way that consolidation does not save money unless it is exercised with a cutting knife. Norton's taxpayers would have derived no benefit from merging with the county. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW_VA_boy 492 Report Share Posted June 9, 2022 On 5/18/2022 at 10:45 AM, BandanaVTDavis4321 said: Nailed it with Giles/Narrows. With Covington/Alleghany, I don't know enough about it to comment. The take with Giles and Narrows is spot on. The other part that most don't seem to realize is that the County is still 7 figures deep on the hook for school system wide renovations done from 1999-2001. Even if they wanted to, the county can't afford it without a massive tax hike or going into Bristol City or Buena Vista City levels of debt. There's an entire list of other issues that we've went ad nauseum over about for years on this very board that I won't rehash but let's just say one half of the county doesn't want it because they don't want their one high school run like Giles has been run for the last 20 + years given they were one year away from being taken over by the state due to not getting accreditation and staff turnover being fairly high. Which, their lack of pay compared to surrounding school systems don't help at all with that either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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