Budget debate is dead — for this year

The most contentious budget season in recent memory was put in the books Wednesday.

Hamilton County has its budget. It’s a whopper, and the school system gets the majority of it.

You know the details. The Hamilton Department of Education shot for the moon — a proposed 34-cent tax increase that would have meant an extra $34 million for raises, 300 new jobs and a slew of other stuff — and was rebuffed. A back-and-forth ensued. It ended Wednesday, but not without one final Fail Mary, this time a plea from Hamilton County Commissioner Warren Mackey, who wanted a 12.5-cent tax increase to re-instate the original idea of 5% raises for teachers.

It was denied, and as commission Chairwoman Sabrina Smedley rightly reminded everyone in attendance, as well as those in the school system tending to the first day of school — it was the school system and the board that made final budget decisions. The board moved millions in extra funds in this year’s budget to 188 new hires and a $1,500 one-time bonus rather than the 5% raise that was to be a main selling point in the original budget request.

But that’s water under the budget bridge.

Now we need to discuss what will happen.

Coming next week, the county is expecting great news from the latest round of test scores. That’s awesome. It also will allow some to shift their bully pulpit to a different direction. (And to be fair, remember this: We should celebrate good test scores, but how much? When test scores stink, school officials tell us how faulty it is to gauge progress and success with only test scores. When test scores rock, then by golly we are somewhere between Ivy League and Mr. Holland’s Opus.)

As for the horizon, we must realize what is required are some serious conversations about some serious investment in our schools.

This is not about test scores. This should not be with the input of UnifiEd, the liberal organization that certainly will try to oust certain elected officials — hi, Rhonda — who seem to have their constituents’ best interests at heart and dare to disagree with UnifiEd’s stances.

This is about facilities and facts. The reports are in, and the long-term success of our schools is going to require capital — money. Some of my money. Some of your money.

Mackey said Wednesday that previous boards have “kicked the can down the road.” He may be right.

But Smedley was also right when she countered that the votes and debates over the past six weeks were not about capital. (And she was also right to remind everyone that just two years ago we had a tax increase in everything other than name for school construction.)

But the laments of kicking the cash can “down the road” could also be viewed as banking millions for the requesting days on the horizon.

County Mayor Jim Coppinger’s final statements — after the amendments for the 11th-hour increase were defeated — detailed the expenses our community faces. He’s not wrong, and those issues should be about priorities rather than politics.

And the school system will be back with their hands out and a list of wants and needs.

Among those — beyond the pie-in-the-sky wants of a UnifiEd or adding dozens of new faces while placating the backbone of the system, your teachers — will be the monstrous challenge of figuring which of the facilities in the recent school evaluation must be addressed.

In some ways, stashing some future cash in those cans that are being kicked down the road may be a silver lining in all of these heartaches and head-scratching.