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Powhatan school leaders ask state to steady school funding, back local sales-tax option and review DSS formula
Summary
At a May 14 joint workshop, Powhatan school officials asked the county and state lawmakers to support stability in the Local Composite Index and full Standards of Quality funding, to allow a local 1% sales-tax option for school construction (estimated at about $50 million over 10 years in Powhatan), and to modernize the state formula that funds local social-services operations.
On May 14, 2026, the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors and the Powhatan County School Board met for a joint legislative workshop where school leaders outlined three priorities they said need state attention: stabilizing K–12 funding tied to the Local Composite Index (LCI), a local-option sales tax to help finance school construction, and reform of the state funding formula that supports local Departments of Social Services.
Mr. Hagee (County Administrator) and Dr. Teigen (Superintendent) presented the proposals and the data behind them. Dr. Teigen described the LCI as “a measure of the locality’s ability to generate local revenue” and warned that year-to-year swings in the index can reduce state aid and force local backfills. She said the school division wants “support for fully funding the SOQs” and suggested smoothing LCI changes to make budgeting more predictable.
The presenters said the school system’s facility study identified roughly $79,000,000 in critical repairs. Mr. Hagee said a 1% local-option sales-tax surcharge would produce an estimated $50,000,000 in Powhatan over 10 years and could meaningfully close the identified gap. "That option, having a local option to put out to the voters of Powhatan County to consider that 1% additional revenue source felt very meaningful," Mr. Hagee said.
On social-services funding, presenters noted that Powhatan receives just under $750,000 under the state’s base-budget formula while the county’s local Department of Social Services operates on roughly a $3,000,000 budget, leaving about $2.3 million to be funded locally. Presenters said the formula includes many braided federal and state streams and argued it has not kept pace with demographic change and new program requirements; they recommended the formula be reviewed and modernized.
A lawmaker participating in the workshop urged the board to consider rebenchmarking and smoothing measures at the state level and summarized recent proposals in Richmond. He said the governor and the House and Senate had differing proposals this year for additional education funding and that some items — including a proposed change to a data-center tax exemption — were affecting broader budget negotiations.
Board members asked for follow-up data. Dr. Teigen said she would provide the board with historic LCI trajectories and the slides used in the presentation so the supervisors and state officials could review the numbers in more detail. No formal votes were taken at the workshop.
Next steps: presenters agreed to share slides and specific LCI and state-funding figures with the board and lawmakers for further review and advocacy planning.
