Friday, October 18, 2002
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Friday, October 18, 2002 |
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School hikes tax rate By JOHN
THOMPSON Blame it on growth and lower state funding. That's the word from The Coweta County School System after raising its millage rate this week. The board raised 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 means a net increase of .73 mills. School sytem public information officer Dean Jackson said despite growing by 1,000 students this year, the county actually got $41,000 less in money from the state. The smaller-than-expected funding from the state, along with funding a 3.25 percent raise and keeping the student-teacher pupil ratio low in kindergarten through third grade caused the millage rate to be raised, Jackson said. 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, actual growth in the digest reported to the system Sept. 24 was 4.79 percent, which yielded only $40.3 million in revenues. The revenue was nearly $1.5 million less than the system, expected, Jackson said. With a net increase proposed of .73 mills, that means that this 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. One possible reason for the sluggish tax digest is that most of the county's growth this past year appears to be residential growth, said school officials. 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.
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