ANOTHER TAX INCREASE FOR SCHOOLS?

Two years ago, Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger desperately sounded like he was trying to say something without saying it.

The district’s public schools didn’t have all the funding they should and deserved better support, he said. While a lot of good things were going on in the schools, some things needed to improve. And everyone would like to see those improvements happen.

What he didn’t say was, “Hey, Hamilton County. You ought to demand a tax increase to help our schools.”

Since he didn’t say it, he didn’t hear such an outcry. When it came time to submit the budget for fiscal 2018, Coppinger did not request a tax increase, and the budget passed almost — except for a request to delay passage by Commissioner Tim Boyd — without a whimper.

But between the budget’s passage and sometime in August, Coppinger would say later, information landed on his desk almost simultaneously — and conveniently, it turned out — about the needs for a new jail and a new sewage treatment plant. Those two items, plus money already needed for schools, were reason enough for him to request a de facto property tax increase by keeping the county’s newly calculated millage rate where it had been.

The county commission went along with him, and the schools had new capital funding.

On Thursday night, during Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson’s State of the System address, Coppinger seemed to echo his words from two years ago.

“I truly believe we have the right man at the right time to move this school system to a place it’s never seen itself at before,” he said.

It is important, the mayor said, for local government to work with schools and state government to see education has the investment it needs.

Acknowledging the money the county commission previously allotted schools for deferred maintenance, Coppinger said, “We need to turn our attention now to [Johnson’s] goals and priorities and in turn give more resources for the classroom.”

What he did not say was, “Hey Hamilton County. You ought to demand another tax increase to help our schools.”

If Coppinger means he wants another tax bump for schools, he’ll have an opportunity to make his case during the district’s budget talks later this month. Indeed, he’ll have until late spring when the county budget is submitted to do it.

The 2017 de facto property tax increase did not seem to raise a storm of opposition, based as it was on big-ticket items like a new jail, a new sewage treatment plant and school projects. Whether another tax increase would raise that storm is yet to be seen.

But maybe the need for another big ticket item will surface that Coppinger can pair with money for schools to help make the case for him.