As more talk of a sales tax hike swirls around Guilford County, I would caution voters to look west toward Watauga County, where a quarter-cent sales tax increase will be on the ballot next Tuesday:

“I would say that Watauga County commissioners are asking for permission to fund another Boone-doggle, but there’s nothing funny about county government’s stewardship of taxpayers’ money,” said Dr. Terry Stoops, JLF Director of Education Studies. “Voters should consider the long-term costs of the new high school before they agree to give county commissioners greater power to raise their taxes.”

……Watauga’s plans raise other questions, Stoops said. “First, voters should ask whether the money raised from the higher sales tax actually would pay for recreational facilities,” he said. “Commissioners have made that promise, but it’s not legally binding. The money could go to any legal purpose, including paying debt service on the new high school.”

At 79.5 million the new Watauaga high school would be, according to Stoops, “the most expensive school ever built in the state.” That designation formerly belonged to the proposed airport-area high school here in Guilford, the cost of which is now down to a mere $71 million.

But you get the idea —- debt service on expensive schools is prompting county commissioners to call for tax hikes. I’ll at least give commission chairman Skip Alston credit for wanting to put the sales tax hike on the November ballot, as opposed to holding a special election, when voter turnout is suppressed so “that the people who will benefit directly from the increased taxpayer spending are the ones most likely to show up at the polls.”

That’s what happened earlier this year in Randolph County.