Schools

Manatee County School Board to Approve Tentative Budget

There is good news and there's bad news; the good news is the millage rate is set to decrease, the bad news is there will also be 188 fewer full-time positions.

Despite budget woes, the School District of Manatee County is set to lower district’s portion of local property taxes by dropping the millage rate, Superintendent Rick Mills said Friday in a press release.

 On Monday, the members of the Manatee County School Board will hold a public hearing on the tentative budget for the 2013-2014 school year, according to school officials.  Due to increased property values, the Manatee county School District will decrease the millage rate, or amount per $1000 that is used to calculate property taxes, to .017.

The drop seems inconceivable considering the budget crisis the district faced earlier this year, which Mills referred to as a “complete loss of fiscal controls dating back to 2009. “

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Mills said the financial catastrophe was the result of poor decision-making, unchecked spending at all levels and years of mismanagement and poor decision making that resulted in a $38 million shortfall over a four-year period. 

The district ended the last year $6.3 million in the red and the district voted in March to cut 188 full-time positions, which will be unfunded in the budget.

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“Over the past month I have had to make some very difficult but necessary decisions to return the school system to financial health,” Mills said. “

At Monday’s hearing, board members will vote on the Required Local Effort; Capital Outlay Millage, Discretionary Operating Millage as well as the budget.

Mills said a line-by-line budget will be released on August 29, at a meeting and adopt the final budget by September 10. 


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