INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — With an increase in property values this year, most property owners can expect to see the School District portion of their tax bills to go up. The School Board unanimously approved its tax rate Tuesday night.
The typical property owner can expect to pay approximately $20 more than last year, given the average property value increase, according to Assistant Superintendent of Finance Carter Morrison.
The millage rate the School Board approved – 7.955 – is lower than last year’s rate, but due to the higher property values, the new rate is considered a tax increase.
“It depends on your individual assessment” done by the Property Appraiser, Morrison said.
There was no public input regarding the tax rate during the final public hearing Tuesday night. However, two people sent emails to the District expressing opiniosn on the budget, which was approved with a 3-2 split vote.
One person who wrote in to the District decried taxpayer dollars being sent to charter schools, noting that traditional schools do not have adequate funding as it is. Another person asked the Board not to cut the budget further. The writer said parents are “fund-raisered out.”
School Board members Charles Searcy and Shawn Frost voted against the budget.
Frost said after the budget hearing that his reason for the opposition remains the same as its been since July’s tentative tax rate hearing. He said Tuesday night that he believes the District needs to better fund charter schools, which are public schools.
“It’s disproportionate,” he said of the allocation of capital funding – the monies used for building and equipping schools. “It’s about the students first.”
Searcy said during the break that he did not believe now was the time for a tax increase, though he voted in favor of the millage rate.
“There’s a lot of stuff in the budget I don’t like,” Searcy said, adding that there was nothing in particular he cared to name publicly.
After amendments to the proposed budget were approved, the 2016-17 budget is down by $3 million from the current fiscal year’s budget of $271 million. The main reasons for the cuts to the budget are a reduction in the District’s debt service due to refinancing debt, decreases to the capital projects funding due to the closing out of various construction projects, and increases in the District’s insurance.
Morrison explained to the Board that even with the health clinic, the District continues to see increases in health insurance expenses.
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Bill Fritz told the Board that health-related expenses continue to increase nationwide. He also said he’d pull together an update for the Board on how the clinic is performing.
