School Board sends tax option to voters

By Karen Voyles
Sun Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Voters will decide in November whether Alachua County schools will have magnet programs, middle school band programs and up-to-date classroom technology.

The School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to put a one-mill property tax increase for four years on the general election ballot.

One mill will raise $100 for each $100,000 in assessed property values. District officials estimated that a full mill would raise about $13 million, slightly less than what the Legislature cut from the district´s approximately $200 million budget over the past year. If voters approve the plan, the money raised could only be used for the stated operating costs, not construction.

Of particular concern to many parents has been the fate of the district´s approximately three dozen school nurses.

A Medicaid bill that allowed states to use the federal money to pay for school nurses expired in April but appears poised for extension for a year by Congress. District officials said a compromise appears certain on the differing House and Senate versions before it goes to the White House for President Bush´s signature.

Alachua County would lose all but a handful of its school nurses without the Medicaid money.

Whether the Medicaid money will be available to pay for nurses a year from now is uncertain, and so School Board members specifically stated in the referendum question that those jobs could be paid for with the additional property tax.

The board had briefly debated whether to ask voters to approve a half mill or a full mill before settling on the full mill.

“I think people are either going to be for it or against it and it won´t matter if it´s a half mill or one mill,” said board member Ginger Childs.

Board member Eileen Roy was concerned about what will happen to employees at the end of the four years. She suggested creating a budget that would not use all of the additional money.

“If we go with one mill and get if, we can bond some money and soften the blow at the end of four years,” Roy said. “We need the full amount. A half mill will not do.”

Another board member, Tina Pinkoson agreed, saying “if the money is to be put into salaries, at the end of four years we have to be able to keep that up.”2008 election referendum question

Shall the Alachua County School District´s ad valorem millage be increased by a total of one mill, beginning July 1, 2009 and ending four years later on June 30, 2013 for critical operating expenses including funds to provide school nurses; maintain elementary music and art programs, middle school band programs, quality school library programs, elementary guidance programs, and academic/career/technical magnet programs; and update classroom technology with oversight by an independent citizens´ committee?

Yes (for the ad valorem millage)

No (against the ad valorem millage)

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