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On November 4, local
voters will have an opportunity to decide if they
want to invest about $10 a month for the average
Alachua County homeowner to maintain
high-quality programs and services in Alachua County
Public Schools.
The 2008 general
election ballot will include a local referendum that
would provide funding for programs that are
currently facing significant reductions or
elimination as a result of budget cuts at both the
state and federal levels.
 School nurses, art,
music and other elective classes, classroom
materials and technology and other programs are all
facing cutbacks in the 2008-09 school year budget.
Alachua County Public Schools lost about $9 million
in state funding this year, and is anticipating at
least another $5 million in cuts for the next school
year based on the budget adopted by the Florida
Legislature and signed by Governor Charlie Crist.
The new legislative
budget for the 2008-09 school year reduces funding
for Alachua County Public Schools by $213 per
student, the second-largest cut in the state. That
amount is also $272 per student less than the
district started with in the 2007-08 school year.
It’s the first time in decades that per-pupil
funding has actually decreased, and it’s projected
that more cuts to education funding will follow.
Even before the cuts, Florida was ranked among the
lowest in the nation in terms of funding for
schools.
The federal
government has also informed school districts
nationwide that Medicaid reimbursement funds, which
are used locally to pay for 29 school nurses, are on
the chopping block. That means a loss of nearly $1
million for Alachua County Public Schools.
The referendum will
ask voters to consider a 1 mill increase in property
taxes, beginning in July of 2009. (One mill is equal
to $1 for every $1000 of the taxable value of a
property.) For the average Alachua County homeowner,
a one mill increase would cost a taxpayer about $120
a year. Any increase would last just four years
unless voters agreed to extend it.
Amendment 1, an
initiative which cuts property taxes throughout
Florida, was approved by voters in January. That
initiative, which also reduces the property taxes
available to schools, reduces the average
homeowner’s property tax bill by about $240 a year.
 The tax rate for
local schools has actually been reduced for the last
18 straight years. The bulk of a homeowner’s school
property tax rate (about 60%) is set each year by
the Legislature.
Additional
information about the upcoming referendum, including
a frequently-asked questions sheet, the School Board
adopted resolution and the ballot language, are
available on this site. More information will be
provided in the future. |
