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School board hopes to collect additional $89 million with millage increase

Rising property values, last year’s referendum will lead to higher property taxes

By Wesley LeBlanc Staff Writer
Posted 7/31/19

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Clay County School Board is expected to generate more than $89 million ahead of the 2019-20 school year if their tentative millage is passed next month.

The school …

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School board hopes to collect additional $89 million with millage increase

Rising property values, last year’s referendum will lead to higher property taxes


Posted

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Clay County School Board is expected to generate more than $89 million ahead of the 2019-20 school year if their tentative millage is passed next month.

The school board must set a millage rate for each year to determine its annual budget. The tentative total millage levy is 7.047 for this year, which is higher than last year’s rate of 6.181, after an additional millage point was approved by voters last August.

“If you don’t take into account the additional one mill [which is being used for school security], our millage actually went down,” Assistant Superintendent for Business Affairs Susan Legutko said. “However, our [home] values have gone up.”

Because home values have risen, taxpayers will be paying more than they did last year since the tax is based on the value of a home.

For example, a home valued at $100,000 would pay $700 in taxes if the millage rate was 7. If the home’s value rose to $150,000 and the millage rate remained unchanged, that same homeowner now would pay $1,050.

Because voters approved a full mill increase to fund the Clay County School District Police Department and other security measures, property owners now will be paying a rate of 7.047. The final numbers won’t be approved until September. But if that rate holds, the school board is expected to bring in $89,559,225.

“That’s a $15.8 million increase to operate,” Legutko said.

That 7.047 millage rate is broken up into four categories: required local effort, which is a state mandated rate the school district must hit in order to receive over $200 million in grants; the basic discretionary levy; the capital outlay levy; and, the additional voted millage. Those levies equate to 3.799, 0.748, 1.5 and 1.0, respectively.

There are additional revenue streams such as grants and interest on investments. If the budget is passed without changes, the school board will have a general fund of $301,557,074.

Of that fund, 20% comes from local revenue streams, 78% comes from state streams, 1% comes from the federal level and the final 1% comes from what is deemed as “other sources.”

The budget doesn’t include a half-cent referendum to raise an additional $318 million for maintenance projects. The school board currently is seeking a legal remedy to force the Board of County Commissioners to hold a special election before Dec. 31. House Bill 5 will go into effect on Jan. 1 and limit tax referendums to general elections.

“These are expenditures that will definitely occur,” Legutko said. “Those funds simply run the business. What’s leftover elsewhere is what we have available to us for other projects. As one of the largest employers in the county, 80% of the budget is used for compensation.”

The capital outlay levy, which will raise $19,063,266, is what the school board can use for construction projects. The school district said it needs an additional $318 million, and it said that number continues to grow. According to Assistant Superintendent of Operations Michael Kemp, it’s this imbalance of money needed versus the revenue acquired that leaves the school board asking for a half-cent sales tax to cover the school district’s maintenance needs.

By the end of the 2019-20 school year, the general fund balance, formally known as the unassigned fund balance, will be $14,598,608. This puts the fund balance at 4.74%, which is higher than the state-mandated 3% but less than the 5% the school board aims to hit.

“We’re on our way to 5%,” School Board Chairwoman Carol Studdard said. “We’re getting very healthy now.”

The mill voted in last August is expected to bring in $10,200,490. That number includes school police salaries and benefits, school police operational expenditures, guardian salaries and benefits, guardian operational expenditures and school security.

The final major section of the tentative school board budget is the debt service. Right now, the district is in debt equal to $46,817,276. Roughly $5.4 million is projected to be paid in the 2019-20 budget.

The district will seek final approval from the school board for this budget during the regular school board meeting on Sept. 5.