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Escambia School District Proposes Increased Budget, Lower Property Tax Rate
July 28, 2019
The Escambia County School District is proposing a lower property tax millage rate while increasing their budget for the next fiscal year.
The district is proposing a millage rate of 6.043 for 2019-20, down from 6.325 in 2018-19. Due to increase property values, the district expects to collect $1.17 million in property taxes in 2019-2020.
The school district is proposing a $364 million general fund budget.
The Escambia County School Board will meet to adopt the tentative millage and tentative budget during a public hearing scheduled for on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, at 5:01 p.m., in Room 160 of the J.E. Hall Center.
“For ten years, the District and the School Board have worked together to increase measurable results, such as our graduation rate, while increasing
school security and responding to budget modifications out of our control, like a shift in state assessments from FCAT to FSA tests. We are very proud to say we have done this without a cost increase to our taxpayers,” Superintendent Malcolm Thomas said in a written statement.
Comments
3 Responses to “Escambia School District Proposes Increased Budget, Lower Property Tax Rate”
Unfortunately school districts monies are allocated for specific uses..PECO FUNDS can only be spent on buildings and facilities..teachers salaries come from. FTFP monies allocated by the FL STATE LEGISLATURE and are part of the negotiations of the local bargaining units( ESCAMBIA EDUCATION ASSOCIATION)… these monies can’t be mixed and mingled.. that is why so many educators are upset about the monies given to charter/ voucher schools where there is very little regulation and oversight.
You would think that the administration would try to utilize the increase in tax revenue to increase the pay for effective teachers. We lose educators to neighboring counties that pay more. I believe there was an article a week or two ago that was looking for more teachers in Escambia County- regardless of teacher certification. One can only assume this is because we cannot attract enough educators due to the pay. This tax reduction was not a good decision for our children and the future of our area. This was an opportunity lost by the administration of ECSD.
Thank You to Supt Thomas and those at our local level who work hard to make sure the taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.
Partially, the reduction is due to an increased value on properties in Escambia County and Florida in general. The new houses being built and the land development add to the values of properties and the taxes derived from that flow into many budget including that for the School Board local efforts.
A GREAT Help to our kids and our community is the Local Option Sales Tax which provides monies for building new schools, improving existing school buildings and maintaining the district. Without this the efforts of the district to provide safe and secure environments for our kids and staffs would be much more difficult.
Thank you to Everyone in our schools and our District who work so hard to make all things good for the kids.