Fiscal Facts-4562
Published June 24, 2010
In an effort to help the Williamson County community better understand the budget and the budget process, IN FOCUS has launched a special feature called Fiscal Facts. The purpose of this section is to answer any questions you might have, or rumors you may have heard, regarding the 2010-2011 budget. Simply EMAIL your questions to us and we will respond to them in upcoming issues of IN FOCUS.
The Williamson County Commission is scheduled to have a final vote on the budget during its July 12 meeting. Since our last issue of IN FOCUS, we received the following questions regarding the budget:
Will the school district be recommending a property tax increase to fund the budget?
The Board recommended a need for revenue to fund the budget. The reason our budget would have required a tax increase is that the schools major funding sources making up 98 percent is the property tax, sales tax and the state funding source Basic Education Program. The BEP and sales tax can be estimated pretty accurately and therefore, the only source of increase to fund our budget would be through the property tax. That being said, the county budget committee did recommend a ten cent tax increase for our fund. They did this without raising overall taxes by shifting a portion of the current tax rates for the county’s General and General Debt Service funds to the schools.
What increase will be recommended and what can we do to support the passage of that increase?
The Williamson County Board of Education must present its budget to the county commission by April 1 of each year. At the time we turned the budget over to the commission in April, we were requesting the equivalent to a 15 cent increase; however, at the time we turned our budget over, we had rough estimates for the state revenue (BEP) and the assessed value of the property tax. As these numbers get refined through May and June, our need for property tax revenue can decrease and it did this year to the point that we needed the equivalent of a 10 cent increase.
What percentage of Williamson County residential properties have a student in the public schools?
I do not have that information. The census may provide us the most accurate information when it is released.
What cuts will be made in our school staff and services next year?
Several central office secretaries, school teacher assistants, and instructional technologists were reduced as were instructional mentors and reading recovery specialists; and we reduced certain administrative positions.
Will class sizes increase in the elementary grades as they have in the middle schools?
The elementary pupil-teacher ratio, or PTR, was not affected by the reduction in personnel due to the fact that we follow the state's mandated guidelines for elementary PTR.