Dwindling state funds force 12% hike in school taxes

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Faced with the grim news of still more cuts in state funds, a somber Fayette County Board of Education on Tuesday amended its 2003-04 budget and reluctantly agreed to raise school taxes by 12.29 percent starting Oct. 1.

That represents a necessary 1.29 mill increase in the operations portion of county property taxes, comptroller James Stephens told the board.

However, the operations millage hike will be offset by a reduction of .29 mills in the bond millage, used to pay back loans on school construction projects.

The 1-mill net increase will still mean about $80 more in school taxes paid yearly by the owner of a $200,000 home, said Stephens.

Without it, Stepehens said, the district faces dire financial straits.

It will end September in the red and have to borrow money to meet payroll, Stephens said.

A freeze on spending for all non-instructional accounts is pending, he said. That follows a plan for belt-tightening laid out last year when the board ran out of money in December, Stephens said.

"End of September is our really critical time," he said.

By receiving the digest from Tax Commissioner George Wingo just a few days early, Stephens said there's hope collections on county property will come in a bit earlier than in the past and keep the district from running out of money completely in December.

Wingo is betting that the state approves the county's tax digest in time to mail bills by Oct. 1. Taxes are due in full by Dec. 1. Though revaluations were done this year on all county property, protests were few and he doesn't expect any major holdouts in payments.

Not going broke at Christmas would be good news for the school system, because it only gets more grim:

An order by Gov. Sonny Perdue to his department heads to slash budgets for the current year by another 2.5 percent will include education funds already promised to local districts.

The annual mid-term adjustment from the state, a sure bet in the days when the state economy was growing like kudzu, is doubtful; Fayette County was counting on $1 million next spring from the distribution.

Education money from the state will be cut another 5 percent minimum, across the board, for fiscal year 2005, Stephens reported. All total, that represents $8 million in state money no longer coming to Fayette County.

Superintendent John DeCotis, facing another hard-sell to the community this school year, appeared angry and frustrated.

"We're not happy we've been cut $8 million by the state in two years," he said, refering to reductions in austerity funds and other mechanisms. "We're not happy that they had an opportunity to do something about it, and didn't."

A special called session of the legislature that could have righted some of the wrongs isn't going to happen, Decotis said.

Worse, he said, were the "unfunded mandates" that state officials continue to hand down to the local level, without any means to pay for them.

DeCotis said a survey of all 180 school systems in the state showed the vast majority had to raise their tax rates for this year.

"I hope everybody remembers the position we were put in by the legislature," he said.