Weekly Alert

School Boards and Property Taxes

School Boards and Property Taxes

What is going on? The school board promised never to raise the millage tax on my property if we passed the 1/2 cent sales tax for building. Taxpayers can't take much more.

June 2009- You will hear a lot about this in the coming weeks. Our Orange County School Board will likely address it during the summer. It's complicated, so we want to make sure everyone gets the facts.

If you're reading this from another county, your school district is facing the very same dilemma. Your story is our story. Details may vary, but we're all struggling with the same reality.

Back in 2002, we voted to exchange 1/2 mill for 1/2 penny sales tax. That was for a one-time CAPITAL improvement fund, approved by the voters to stay in place until 2016. Money raised for Capital improvements may be used ONLY for improvements to existing schools and construction of new schools.

We are at 1 1/2 mill in Orange County for capital improvements instead of the 2 mill maximum like other counties. It was smart to use the 1/2 penny instead of 1/2 mill because the penny raises considerably more money and tourists, not residents, contribute at least half of the money raised in this effort.

Here's a shock: money for capital improvements was never properly funded by the legislature, so this was the only way for our district to put funds aside for necessary repairs to keep buildings safe. The promise made to the voters by OCPS pertains only to the issue of capital improvements.

This session, the Florida Legislature, desperate to avoid the appearance of raising new revenue, voted to allow each district to assess .25 per $1,000 of property taxes for two years without voter approval. If districts don't exercise this option right now, they will lose it forever.

This new .25 has nothing to do with the 1/2 penny for capital improvements. It is patently untrue that school boards across the state will start raising taxes willy-nilly. These two things are apples and oranges. Since this is a statewide effort, the .25 has built-in flexibility and can be used for either capital or operations. Here in Orange County, we would designate operations.

After two years, this .25 can be put to a public vote for approval in perpetuity. Currently, we max out at 10 mills in Orange County and we use 7 at this time. In Orange County we stand to gain nearly $50M during the two-years, no small sum when you consider that we have no real plan as a state for dedicated public education funding.

Call it a Cliff or a Flameout, here's the cold, hard fact: In less than two years the Stimulus money is 100% gone.

By playing an astounding sophomoric and transparent game of semantics, our Legislators and Governor gave themselves a huge pass on appearing to raise taxes. Instead, they decided to hide behind the skirts of local districts across the state forcing them to raise money by taxing property owners an extra .25.

That's the story of the extra 25 cents. We thought you should know.

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