Dalton BOE to roll back tax rate

Published 10:15 pm Monday, August 11, 2008

The Dalton Board of Education expects to approve a property tax rate on Wednesday that will bring in approximately $207,000 more this year than last.

Board members are expected to cut the property tax rate to 7.845 mills from 8.134 mills in 2007 at a called meeting at 7:45 a.m. at the central office, 100 S. Hamilton St.

The tax is expected to generate $29.575 million for the school system, compared to $29.369 million in 2007. Officials said the increase is due to an increase in the tax digest from $3.61 billion to $3.77 billion.

During Monday night’s board meeting, Carol Shanahan, assistant superintendent for business services, told board members Gov. Sonny Perdue may seek to cut education funding further. State fiscal managers said on Monday that tax collections in July dropped 6.6 percent from this time last year, according to the Associated Press.

“We are fixing to get hit, I think by about a million dollars,” Shanahan said. “I think we are in a for a rough couple of years.” The school system’s budget for the current fiscal year is $63.8 million.

While the cuts are not final, the governor’s plan could impact transportation, nurses in the schools and the system’s preschool program, school officials said.

“It’s not a done deal yet,” said Steve Williams, board chairman. “We’ll look at it and see what we are going to do.”

“That’s one reason we need to learn what lean means,” said Superintendent Orval Porter.

Board members agreed to establish a $2.6 million debt service sinking fund. The money, which will come from unappropriated funds in the general budget, will be earmarked to cover any outstanding debt from capital improvements since 2000.

Collections from an education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) passed by voters in 2006 have not been as much as expected due to a downturn in the economy, Shanahan told the board. She did not provide specifics. Any anticipated extra money that could have been used to pay off the debt may not be there, she said.

The five-year SPLOST is projected to generate $115 million over five years, with Dalton Public Schools slated to receive 32 percent, or a maximum of $36.8 million. The money is funding capital improvements at Brookwood, Park Creek and Blue Ridge elementary schools and Dalton Middle School.

“If we do have SPLOST money, we can look at this again,” Shanahan said. “I’d rather be proactive than reactive.”