STERLING – Whiteside County residents likely will see a request for a 1 percent sales tax increase to support school facilities on the ballot in April – that is, if the Sterling School Board passes a resolution in support of the proposal by Jan. 22.

Three districts already plan to back the measure, Sterling Superintendent Tad Everett told the board Wednesday. Sterling, with its 36 percent of the enrollment in the county, would tip the scale toward a ballot measure.

The Sterling Public Schools would get the lion’s share of revenue – more than $1.5 million a year or more than $30 million over the 20-year life of the tax – from a 1 percent sales tax increase, Everett told the board. That would cover what the district typically has bonded out for Health/Life Safety funds every 10 years, he said.