The Liberty County Board of Education is expected to keep its millage rate the same — but because those mills will bring in more property tax revenue, it will have to hold tax increase hearings.
The current rate is 15.25, and the system is not planning to go with the rollback rate, the millage rate needed to keep tax bills the same as last, schools chief financial officer Stephanie Clark told board members. A reassessment, which takes place every three years, led to a growth in the tax digest.
“So our inflationary growth went up tremendously and it caused property values to increase,” Clark said.
The school board will hold three public hearings on the millage rate: October 31 at 9 a.m., November 7 at 6 p.m. and November 14 at 4:30 p.m.
The school system’s budget calls for $164.7 million in revenue. Of that, almost $26.1 million is coming from the federal government. Of Liberty County’s 267,000 acres, nearly 124,000 are on Fort Stewart, according to the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools, and local governments cannot tax that land.
For fiscal year 2021, the federal government disbursed more than $18 million in federal impact aid to Liberty County schools, according to NAFIS.
But Clark told board members the school system isn’t going to be getting that much money from the federal government in the future.
“We are no longer heavily impacted and this is the last year we will receive that big heavily impacted impact aid,” she said.
Because the school system’s percentages fell below the heavily impacted rates, it will receive the federal basic support rate. For the FY24 application for impact aid, that will be about $1.2 million.
Nearly half of the school system’s funding — about $80.6 million — comes from the state. Of that total, about $11.9 million came in what are known as equalization funds. In order to get that funding, Clark said, the school system has to levy at least 14 mills.
Clark also pointed out that health insurance costs for classified personnel, such as paraprofessionals, custodians and food service, went up last year, and is increasing $250 per member per month. Board members also are looking at raises for the next round of classified personnel.
“That’s something that’s been on our list and we will need the income from tax revenue to make these changes happen,” Clark said.
School board members also are looking at spending $131,000 to replace three sets of playground equipment, one at Lyman Hall Elementary and two smaller sets at Frank Long Elementary. The playground equipment is 28 years old and has exceeded its life expectancy, said Arnold Jackson, school system chief operations officer. Proceeds from the education special local option sales tax will be used to replace the playground set.
Board members also may be tapping into ESPLOST for four new buses, two of which will be for special needs students. The other two buses will have 78 seats each, and all four will be air-conditioned. The school system has purchased 49 new buses over the last seven years.
The cost for the new buses totals $597,000.