Friday, October 4, 2002
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Friday, October 4, 2002 |
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School look to hike millage rate By JOHN
THOMPSON
The Coweta County Board of Education will hold its first public hearing next week to discuss raising its millage rate. The board is considering raising the maintenance and operation millage rates by 2.33 mills, to 17.94 mills for 2003. It is also eliminating the current bond debt millage rate of 1.6 mills. In all, that would mean a net increase of .73 mills. There will be public hearings on the proposed budget Oct. 7 at 8 a.m. and at 6 p.m., and October 14 at 6 p.m., with a called board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 14 to make a final decision on this year's tax rates. The public hearings will be held at 237 Jackson Street. In a memo circulated to school board employees and the press, the board outlined why a millage rate was necessary. In June, the board adopted a general fund budget of $121 million in expenditures. Based on state revenue projections (which are very low this year), the board originally anticipated that 15.61 mills of tax plus the use of $7 million in system reserve funds would cover the remainder of the budget this year. This would allow the millage rate to remain unchanged this year. Thus, the Board budgeted revenues of $114 million, which causes us to go into our reserves for the $7 million difference. Of the $114 million of revenues, $69 million is state revenues and $45 million is local revenues. The local revenues included a projection of $41.8 million of ad valorem taxes. This projection was based upon an 8.6 percent growth in the tax digest. However, the memo points out, actual growth in the digest reported to the system Sept. 24 was 4.79 percent, which should yield only $40.3 million in revenues. This shortfall of $1.5 million would either require the further erosion of reserves beyond the $7 million originally planned, or would require an increase in the millage rate. According to local realtors, the average value of a home in Coweta County is approximately $150,000, and 17.94 mills in ad valorem taxes would result in a tax bill (not including any exemptions) of $1,079 for such a home. With a net increase proposed of .73 mills, that means that his year's average household in Coweta County would see a net increase of $43.80 on their tax bill, or $3.65 per month when broken down that way. The memo concludes that school system growth has continued at a high rate while revenue sources have not kept pace. There has been little to no growth in state revenues and the growth of the tax digest is sluggish and much lower than past years. One possible reason for the sluggish tax digest is that most of the county's growth this past year appears to be residential growth. The limited commercial and industrial growth probably has contributed to the lower digest. School officials said the board is also faced with the concern that the current poor economic conditions could remain the same or even worsen next year. These economic trends, coupled with the continuing high rate of student population growth, are the reasons the board is proposing 17.94 mills for Maintenance and Operation and 0.00 mills for Debt Service for a total millage of 17.94.
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