LEBANON, Tenn. -- Leaders in Wilson County decided on Monday night that they will not vote on a wheel tax increase to help fund a new Lebanon High School. Instead, they are going to let the public decide.

The Wilson County commissioners were under the microscope Monday evening when they discussed doubling a tax to pay for a new school.

"I graduated in '75, and it was kind of bad then," said Sherry Barber, a Lebanon High School graduate. Her daughter is about to be a junior in the same school that was built in 1952.

"A lot of times, you've got to walk through one, two classrooms just to get to the third," said Clint Wilson.

Last school year, then-principal Wilson explained the frustrations of cramming 1,700 students into an outdated, at times unsafe school that's supposed to hold 1,200.

"There's a difference in need and want," said County Commissioner Annette Stafford, who said now is the time to raise the Wilson County wheel tax from $25 to $50. "We've wanted one for a long time, and now we need one ... Even by adding the $25, it barely brings us up with the other two or three counties."

Here's the current wheel tax comparison for Wilson County's neighbors:

Davidson County: $55

Rutherford County: $52.50

Sumner County: $51

Trousdale County: $40

Wilson County: $25

Davidson, Rutherford and Sumner pay more than double Wilson, and even Trousdale County residents pay $15 more.

All of the county commissioners with whom Channel 4 spoke said a new Lebanon High School is needed but that they don't all agree the wheel tax needs to be raised.

They decided on Monday night to let the public vote on the measure. It will cost the county about $100,000 to hold a special election this year.

"I'm wishing that the county commissioners would just go ahead and do what the people of Wilson County put them up there to do, is vote for the tough decisions, and this is one of them," said Stafford.

A new Lebanon High School will go on 60 acres off Hartman Drive. It's just a matter of when and how it will be funded.

County leaders decided not to wait until a regularly scheduled county election because they don't want to wait for a year to decide the issue.