Muscogee school board approves Columbus property tax rate for next fiscal year
The Muscogee County School District’s board is keeping the same millage rate for Columbus residents to pay in property taxes.
The fiscal year 2021 millage rate will be 23.321 mills, the same as the current year, said Cathy Williams, finance committee chairwoman, during the last two of three public hearings Monday morning and evening.
The board unanimously approved the rate during Monday night’s meeting, which was conducted via video conference and streamed on MCSD’s YouTube channel.
Last week, the board tentatively adopted a rate of 23.404, which is projected to generate the same amount of revenue, based on a lower property tax digest. But complaints from residents prompted the board to reconsider that vote and maintain the same millage rate.
“After drilling down on the many questions from the community, we determined that the script was premised on our keeping the tax revenue at the same level, not the millage rate,” said Williams, the board’s District 7 representative, during the Monday morning hearing.
“It is clear that the consensus of the board was to not raise the millage rate,” Williams said. “Therefore, because the will of the board is to hold the millage rate at 23.321 and not increase it to the 23.404 in the script I read last week, we don’t really need to hold any more public hearings.
“But because we advertised today’s right now as well as this evening’s, we felt it necessary to go ahead and make sure that we conveyed an explanation as to why there was that change. So we will take advantage of these two advertised meetings to clarify any confusion that occurred.”
This is the second clarification from the board about the millage rate this month.
Last week, superintendent David Lewis and board members explained that the announcement of a possible property tax increase was sent in a news release to notify the public as only an option. MCSD is facing a funding shortfall of more than $16.7 million, according to the news release, and is trying to make up for a reduction in state funding due to the economic impact of COVID-19.
The possible property tax increase to 24.321 mills would have meant, according to the news release:
▪ A homeowner whose property has a fair market value of $125,000 would pay approximately $33.47 more in taxes.
▪ An owner of non-homestead property with a fair market value of $175,000 would pay approximately $64.19 more in taxes.
MCSD employee furloughs
Lewis, however, ended up recommending system-wide job furloughs and other budget cuts instead, making a property tax increase unnecessary. The recommended furloughs would mean:
▪ 190-day contract employees would be furloughed for five days.
▪ 220-day contract employees would be furloughed for six days.
▪ 240-day and 249-day contract employees would be furloughed for seven days.
▪ Lewis would be furloughed for nine days.
The furloughs would amount to a pay cut of 3% to 3.5% for the average salary, Lewis said.
When employees are furloughed, they aren’t paid but are allowed to return to work after the time off, as opposed to layoffs, when they are cut from their jobs.
Several board members said their $12,000 annual salary should be cut so they can participate in the financial sacrifice. They did not specify how much they would reduce their salaries.
Williams told the Ledger-Enquirer last week the administration and finance committee also found these ways to cut the budget to prevent raising taxes: realigning approximately 75 jobs; leaving some positions vacant; and using more money from the fund balance.
This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 3:16 PM.
