By Haley Stoltz, Hadley Harbison and Paige Jackson
Voters in Buena Vista and Lexington approved a 1% sales tax increase that will help pay for school construction projects.
The tax in Lexington is projected to raise approximately $6.6 million for public school construction and renovations over the next five years. The revenue will go toward projects including a new gym at Rockbridge County High School and roof repairs at Lylburn Downing Middle School.
The increase is scheduled to expire June 30, 2032. It would apply to hotel rooms, restaurant meals and many retail items, but groceries, gasoline and prescription drugs would be exempt, according to interim Lexington Mayor David Sigler.
“A lot of us week to week we need to buy groceries, we need to buy gasoline, we need to have personal hygiene items,” Sigler said. “But it is a choice, respectfully, to eat out at a restaurant frequently and it is a choice if you happen to be staying in a hotel.”
In Lexington, 1,477 people voted to approve the tax, while 645 voted against it, according to unofficial results from the Virginia Board of Elections.
Several voters interviewed at the polls Tuesday said they supported the tax increase.
One who opposed it, however, said he thought the taxes in Lexington were already too high. Bill Brown, a retired Lexington resident, also said eating out is already expensive enough as it is.
“I live right behind a beautiful new elementary school, so it doesn’t look like they’re that needy to me,” Brown said. “I’m probably going to vote against the sales tax.”
In Buena Vista, the sales tax is expected to bring in about $600,000 a year until 2046, money that would help cover the costs of improvements to the joint campus of Parry McCluer High School and Parry McCluer Middle School. The building requires a new gymnasium and wood shop. These facilities are still being used at the old middle school campus.
“We are feverishly working to come up with a viable way to make sure that we’re able to fund the school expansion as the middle school and high school have combined,” Buena Vista City Manager Krystal Onaitis said. “A lot of that hinges on the 1% proposed additional sales tax referendum passing. That money goes directly to major capital needs, major maintenance needs, and school construction.”
In Buena Vista, 1,199 people voted to approve the tax, while 754 voted against it.
Voters also elected two school board members in Lexington and one in Buena Vista.
Justin G. Davis, 36, is a business administration professor at Washington and Lee University and a father of young children who will attend Lexington public schools. He will join the Lexington City School Board, alongside LaTonya Ann Douglas, 39, who was elected after being appointed to the board in 2024.
This is only the second time that voters elected Lexington City School Board members. Until 2024, school board members were appointed. In 2022, a referendum was passed that would allow voters to elect school board members starting in 2024.
Mike Cartolaro was elected to the Buena Vista City School Board, taking the seat vacated by Mac Felts. Cartolaro, 64, was appointed to the Buena Vista School Board in 2025 to fill a vacant seat. He lost to Charles Jolley when he ran again that same year. He ran unopposed this year.