Hillsborough voters renew 10-year school tax, make superintendent an elected post

Hillsborough County voters overwhelmingly approved a 10-year renewal of the district's half-cent sales surtax, securing an estimated $1.5 billion to overhaul aging school campuses while remaking how district leaders are chosen.Hillsborough school sales tax renewalThe ballot referendum passed with 62% of the vote and more than 300,000 ballots cast in favor, according to the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections. The renewed surtax gives officials the green light to fund more than 1,700 scheduled capital improvement projects over the next decade across the nation's seventh-largest school district.Under state law, revenue from the sales surtax is strictly restricted to brick-and-mortar capital projects and cannot be used for classroom operational expenses. While residents previously approved a separate tax dedicated to teacher and staff raises, officials cannot spend those funds on physical infrastructure repairs.Campus repairs and spendingVoters first enacted the half-cent sales ta