Bartow County School Taxes NEVER Stop Increasing. Why? Is it really 19.4% and not 15.4%?
Come to Bartow County School Board Meeting, Monday 7/31 at 530 pm to speak at 6 pm.
Since at least 2018, the county has always collected more property taxes than prior year. Why? The Taxpayers have not gotten routine 3-19% raises every year. Why does the School Board? The Taxpayers have been suffering with inflation and higher taxes at the Federal level but the County school system still demands more. They expect it. Like it is their “right”.
Well, enough is enough and it is time for the School Board to live within the means of the taxpayers. Are more services being delivered for these massive tax hikes? Are kids getting more? Is the education better or, instead, is more work passed from school to home for the parents to supervise? Are more online classes offering canned video lectures while the parents wonder why their kids are locked onto the computer endlessly? The School Board needs to explain why they think they really need more money.
Bartow County School Board Meeting
65 Gilreath Road Cartersville, Georgia 30121
Monday, 7/31 at 530 pm (must sign up to speak ahead of the 6 pm start time)!
EMAIL The members of the Bartow County School Board and ask them to adopt the ROLLBACK RATE, Just as Bartow County Commissioner Steve Taylor is doing this year.
Mr. Tony Ross tony.ross@bartow.k12.ga.us
Mrs. Darla Williams darla.williams@bartow.k12.ga.us
Matt Shultz, Ed.S. matt.shultz@bartow.k12.ga.us
Mr. Butch Emerson butch.emerson@bartow.k12.ga.us
Mrs. Anna Sullivan anna.sullivan@bartow.k12.ga.us
Copy and paste these email addresses together for a single email:
tony.ross@bartow.k12.ga.us, darla.williams@bartow.k12.ga.us , matt.shultz@bartow.k12.ga.us, butch.emerson@bartow.k12.ga.us, anna.sullivan@bartow.k12.ga.us
More Spending. More taxes. Reserves Not Tapped.
Why is an EXTRA $13 million needed? They are planning to spend $254 million in 2023-2024, and still have $124 million in the bank when they are done! Why can’t these funds be tapped (or better yet returned to taxpayers) if the needs are so great for more spending? (Of course the real solution is to stop increasing the spending). See 2024 Budget summary from the School Board below:
The graph at the top shows the increase in tax collections every single year since 2018. Future analysis will evaluate how far back this has been true. It is very unlikely there was no increase or even a cut. The rate of increase is accelerating, proposed to go up $25 million for the last two years of budgets. This is more than the prior 4 years combined of about a $18.5 million (from 2018-2021).
Proposed Increase: 15.4% or 19.4%?
Local governments are required to advertise when they will collect more taxes - meaning increase taxes. The advertisement in the 7/20/23 Daily Tribune (page 3A) indicated a “15.4%” increase. However on page 2A, the increase is listed in the public notice of the “5 year tax digest” of 19.43! So which is it? It appears this is really a 19.43% increase based on simple math from their table (and also what they printed in the paper on page 2A). If so, does that mean the “Notice of Tax Increase” is not compliant with the law on advertising such tax increases?
The Property Assessment/Millage Rate Shell Game.
Local governments like to complain that they are “required” to call an increase in tax collections a “tax hike” when it is just collecting more based on increased property values. Well, they should stop complaining about true statements like “We are going to take more money from you through taxes than we did last year.” Many times they will play a shell game by stating that the Millage rate is “lower than last year”. They often smile when they do that, as if they just “cut” your taxes. But there is no cut with a lower millage rate (tax rate) when property values go up, unless the rollback rate is used (below). It is a tax hike.
The increased property values in Bartow County are due to price inflation of homes and new development. Bartow County Government is acting responsibly by proposing to tax next year at the “rollback rate”. That is the rate at which taxes would not increase from year to year and remain the same. The School Board Tax Increase Notice indicates that the roll back rate for the School Board should stay the same at 15.104 to avoid raising taxes on local citizens. The Citizens deserve the Rollback rate from the County School Board too.
The property values are now valued in total at $5.263 Billion for this coming tax year. That is increased by more than $1billion from $4.207 billion from last year. Do you feel like you are worth more money because your property value went up? Not likely.
No Budget Transparency/ Actual tax collections nearly always higher than planned
The most information on increased spending that the School Board will provide is a single table with large numbers but no details. This Blog has requested the detailed budget to be sent. Yet it has not been sent at this point. The School Board should post the proposed budget and a detailed explanation of why they think a 19.4% increase in property taxes is needed.
What is interesting is that when looking back in time at prior budgets, the proposed AND actual amount of property taxes collected was always higher than the current “5 Year Tax Digest” advertised in the newspaper. Below you can see that although the “5 year tax Digest” advertised in the Newspaper indicated that 2021-2022 Property tax collections would be “$58.817 million” the actual BUDGETED amount was $63.34 million. To add insult to injury, they School Board ACTUALLY collected $68.724 million.
So, even though they claimed to increase taxes in 2021 “2.87%” that year, the ACTUAL increase in tax collections was 21.4%, and extra $12.3 million. This is far different than the reports “5 year tax digest” of only increasing $1.64 million for that year.
Preparing to Battle Higher Property Taxes.
Don’t accept what you will certainly hear as excuses to raise taxes. You will hear the following bromides to try to make you swallow this unjust tax hike:
It is only $300 per house (or something similar).
Response: It is money the School Board can do without.
Why don’t you value education?
Response: I do value education. What more will be done to educate children with this money that has not been done for last several years?
I don’t mind my taxes going up to pay for education.
Response: You are free to send a check to the School system and any other government you would like.
Inflation means we have to raise taxes.
Response: Inflation is not 15 or even 19%.
Stand strong and stay tuned. The fight to lower taxes in Bartow County is just beginning.
Those are all valid questions. Even if you ultimately decide to support the tax increase, those threshold questions need to be answered.
Here's an article about the 2024 budget.
https://wbhfradio.org/bartow-county-board-of-education-passes-24-budget/#:~:text=The%20Bartow%20County%20Board%20of,passed%20with%20expenditures%20at%20%24175%2C857%2C913.