The Fayette County Board of Education learned Monday night that next year’s state funding won’t be quite as austere as previous years.

Comptroller Lee Davis told the board members that austerity reductions from the General Assembly should be around $2.5 million, instead of the $5 million a year the school system has had to deal with for the last three years.

Davis also said the mid-term projections for revenue from the state this year are $80 million, which is $2 million more than previously estimated.

“We may want to put this in a capital fund, because nobody anticipated the price of steel and petroleum rising as high as they’ve gotten,” Davis said.

Board member Janet Smola quizzed Davis on the implications of leaving the additional funds in the system’s general fund. He told her that it would go into general fund balance, which stands at $13.5 million, at the end of the fiscal year.

If it was left in the general fund, Davis added, it could possibly prevent the system from borrowing money next fall before property tax receipts start rolling into the system’s coffers.

Davis also said the General Assembly is looking at funding a 4 percent raise for teachers and the system was examining if it could do the same for non-certified employees.

With some relatively good news coming from the state, Davis is hopeful the system will be able to maintain the same millage rate or possibly lower it after the school system approves the budget.

The budget must be approved by June 30 and the system expects to set the millage rate in July or August.

Last year, the Fayette County Board of Education held two public hearings on a proposed tax increase.

While the millage rate was decreased from 22.67 mills to 22.35 mills, the rollback was not enough to account for the upward reassessments of homes this year.

The millage rate for maintenance and operations dropped from 18.99 to 18.75, while the bond millage rate fell to 3.60 from 3.687.

The board’s general fund budget last year was a record $164 million, and property taxes fund nearly half of the overall budget. The rest is paid for through state and federal funds.

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