No tax hike in Rome schools’ new draft budget
♦ The school board is moving to present the plan despite unknowns.
The absence of a confirmed state budget for the next fiscal year is not keeping Rome City Schools from moving forward with its budget for the 2020-2021 school year.
A preliminary plan and budget request was unanimously approved by the school board during a special called meeting Thursday. It’s the first step in the process of getting the system’s budget approved by the Rome City Commission.
The request does not include an increase in the school’s portion of the city’s millage rate, which is set to remain at 17.450 mills.
Superintendent Lou Byars said they are expecting about a 6.3% increase in the property tax digest for a total of $21.4 million.
He told the board that it is unusual to not have the complete revenue numbers in at this time.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the suspension of the state legislature’s annual session in March. The Georgia General Assembly will not reconvene until mid-june and is not expected to pass a state budget until sometime in July.
That will leave local systems a short amount of time to finalize a budget for the 2020-2021 term that starts the first week of August.
Byars said he has spoken to city officials about having a “true up” after the end of the fiscal year next July, because the school system is estimating both its property tax collections and its state funding.
“If we underestimate our revenue, we don’t get all that we are due. If we overestimate, then the city gives us more than they collect,” Byars said. “What we’ll do is true-up, or reconcile, at the end of the year — make sure nobody is harmed by agreeing to a partial budget.”
Another factor in school system budgets across the state is Gov. Brian Kemp’s call for all state agencies, including school systems, to plan for a 14% budget cut.
Byars said that could mean between a decrease of $5 million to $6 million in state funding, but he called the estimate “fluid.”
“It changes day to day, if not hourly,” Byars said, adding that the system plans to maximize the effectiveness of whatever federal funds it gets.
He said there are proposed plans to deal with the expected shortfall. One is to adjust the school calendar to have two pre-planning days and one post-planning day as furlough days for faculty and staff. Another is to eliminate some positions.