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September 2, 2010

Dalton Public Schools: Two hearings today on proposed tax increase

Rachel Brown rachelbrown@daltoncitizen.com

The first two of three public hearings on raising the property tax rate for Dalton Public Schools are today.

Both meetings are at Dalton City Hall with the first at noon and the second at 6 p.m. Dalton Board of Education members will hold the hearings today and a third hearing on Monday, Sept. 13, at 6:30 p.m. before taking a final vote. At issue is a proposal to raise the property tax rate from 7.845 mills to 8.134 mills. A mill is a $1 tax for every $1,000 of value.

Officials have said the increase would bring in an extra $1 million for the school system, and it translates to about $30 extra in taxes for a Dalton homeowner with a property value of a little more than $100,000. The proposal came about after school board members learned the expected local property tax revenue they based their $56.7 million budget on earlier this year was going to be about $1.2 million less than they thought it would be.

Superintendent Jim Hawkins said federal stimulus money will offset that loss, but school officials would probably have to seriously consider raising the property tax rate next year. Board member Rick Fromm said it would be better to raise the rate gradually two years in a row than to levy a big increase all at once.

Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce President Brian D. Anderson Sr. said the chamber on Tuesday sent out an e-mail link to a survey to about 1,600 addresses. He said the mailing list includes representatives from all of the chamber’s member employers, but some employers have more than one person on the list.

The survey asks participants whether they “support an increase in Dalton Public Schools taxes at this time” and to explain why or why not. It also asks, “On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being strongly disagree and 10 being strongly agree, do you feel the Dalton Public School system has sufficiently explored all budget cuts possible?” The last question asks “What recommendations would you offer to close the budget gap facing Dalton Public Schools?”

Anderson said he doesn’t plan to make any statements on the chamber’s position at today’s hearings, but he’ll share the survey results with chamber board members once the information is compiled, and the board at that time can decide whether to take an official position on the tax increase.

“We do try to solicit feedback on things at different times specifically when it comes to policy issues,” Anderson said. “We’ve probably done more of it during the January to March time frame when we’re watching state level legislation, but we also look (year round) because federal and local policies can occur at different times.”

Mayor David Pennington has publicly opposed the tax increase and said he plans to meet with the board to ask the members to reconsider and will likely be at today’s noon meeting. Pennington said raising taxes would hurt the city’s already struggling economy.

Earlier this year, school board members approved trimming $5 million to arrive at the $56.7 million budget. More information about the budget is posted on the system’s website, www.daltonpublicschools.com, under the “Budget Update” link on the left side.

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