Vote First, Ignore Citizens Later: Bartow School Board. FIGHT CONTINUES!

One Woman of Courage votes "NO" to Massive Tax hike: Darla Williams.

Arrogance. That is the ONLY way to describe it. Pure, unadulterated arrogance. The Bartow County School Board voted to raise Property tax collections by at least 15.4% last night. That is business as usual: politicians raising taxes. But what is pure contemptuous arrogance was voting for the tax hike BEFORE the citizens were allowed to offer feedback to their elected officials! That’s right. The approach was to ignore the 30-40 citizens in the room and just vote to raise taxes before hearing a single word from them.

The fight to stop this massive property tax hike is not over. See end of post on what is next.

The Board heard presentations from school board CFO Meagan Brown trying to pass off the 2024 millage rate as “staying the same” as equivalent of not hiking taxes. She then complained that state law requires them to report this as an “increase” in taxes, but the rate is still the same, so they can just rest easy that the millage rate is not going up and is the “lowest” they have passed in years. They heard some bromides from some Board members passing the buck and justifying the rate (see below). They then heard from the Superintendent who tersely recommend the adoption of the 17.43 millage rate. The Board Chair, Tony Ross, then dutifully followed his lead by calling for an immediate motion and vote. Then BAM: a 4-1 vote in favor of a massive tax hike.

Then and only then did they agree to hear from the 30-40 citizens in the room. Not one of them spoke in favor of the rate and all opposed the tax hike.

Thank Board Member Darla Williams

There was one woman of courage there: Board Member Darla Williams. She voted against the massive tax, the sole “no” vote. She will certainly catch negative feedback from the employees and staff of the School Board as they work to pressure her to support the gravy train for the local government. She needs to hear from you to say THANK YOU DARLA WILLIAMS for voting against this massive tax hike! EMAIL thank Board Member Williams and ask her to stand strong for a ROLL BACK RATE at darla.williams@bartow.k12.ga.us.

Games and Excuses by the Board

Th Board engaged in typical games to justify the tax hike.

• Board Member Matt Schultz stated this wasn’t really their fault since property values have gone up. He indicated there should be political action to limit the assessment of property or at least the impact on taxable value. He complained that it is unfair to see values go up 25% and something needs to change. Yet he ignored his own power to do something about it by just voting for millage rate that guarantees a minimum 15.4% massive tax hike.

• Board Member Anna Sullivan had no sympathy at all for the impact on citizens. Instead she offered the standard bromides about “investing” in the future and using the “future education of our children” as a standard shield for bloated, unaccountable government.

• Chair Tony Ross completely abrogated his responsibility to ensure citizens were guiding their elected officials by railroading through a vote before citizen comment.

The property values are going up, there is no doubt. But Bartow County Commissioner Steve Taylor has shown the way by adopting the “roll back rate” for property taxes for the coming year. Even with this, the County will still have increased revenue from property taxes since there are new taxpayers from the recent massive overdevelopment in Bartow County.

The School Board was told what the rollback rate would be to ensure that citizens would pay the same amount of property taxes next year (about 15.1 instead of 17.4). However, the Board was not told how much that would result in collection and how they budget could work with the same money. Especially since there are about $120 million in RESERVES now that are not being tapped, but growing under the proposed 2023-2024 budget.

Citizen Testimony

Numerous citizens testified against the hike. Every single one of them opposed the tax hike. Not a single one favored it. Here are examples of testimony.

• A Senior citizen moved to Bartow in part due to lower taxes. But stated that property values are going to have a huge impact on her, even with the $10,000 Senior homestead exemption.

  • (Bartow Freedom Coalition Comment: The homestead exemption is a drop in the bucket compared to the median home value of $310,000 in Bartow currently. Board Member Matt Schultz expressed hope for the $15,000 homestead exemption proposed in the state legislature. This too, is a drop in the bucket).

• A parent with children in the schools here wondered why the school was paying for free supplies for students when parents have traditionally bought these themselves.

  • (BFC Comment: Why should all taxpayers transfer funds from their pockets to pay for the costs of school supplies for others? Most do not even have kids in the schools.).

• A parent complained that as a graduate of this school system he felt they do not give the best education and that is why he and his family are homeschooling. He called for competition through school choice so funds could follow the student to private schools and home schoolers.

  • (BFC comment: The School choice bill failed this year in the state legislature, in part due to a “no vote” from Bartow State Representative Mitchell Scoggins).

• Another testified that we need more transparency with the proposed budget. He indicated that in his role as a company executive, that he would be fired if he did not cut spending when needed.

  • (BFC Comment: Unlike government, businesses don’t have the option to generate more revenue by voting for it.)

• Yours Truly called for the Budget to be posted online and pointed out that in the 6/26 budget meeting, no tough questions were asked. I also pointed out:

  • Property taxes have gone up every years for at least the last five years.

  • That the if you take more money from citizens through their property tax bill than you did last year, they you are voting for a tax hike and that they board should stop playing “millage rate” games. That the citizens are wise to their games and are not fooled anymore.

  • The Electricity costs will go up only $250,000 but the planned tax hike is about $13million!

  • That even though the state mandated a $2,000 teacher pay raise, they pay about half of those costs.

  • That health insurance costs can be mitigated by offering a plan that is not gold-plated and more in line with what the taxpayers have. Plus, they have not even posted the numbers to prove the need.

  • That the Board wants to take any “extra money” from the tax hike to put in the Capital Improvement fund even though it currently has a balance at about $60 million.

  • That the Board is not living up to its responsibilities by asking the staff to justify the massive spending hikes.

The video of the public hearing should be posted by the School Board in the next few days hopefully.

The Fight Continues to STOP Massive Tax Hike.

There is more work to do. While the Board arrogantly passed the “tentative” millage rate last night, they still must do a final approval. Here are next steps.

• The Detailed budget has been requested through an open records request. This reporter expects significant obstruction to that. But once I obtain it, there will be deep analysis offered here with insights about avoiding a cut.

• There will be more public meetings on August 14th at 11 am and 5:30 p.m. Start gathering friends and relatives. You don’t have to have a great deal of detail .Just get up to the podium and say you “oppose the tax hike” and want the rollback rate. Tell your personal stories about the negative impact on you. (SEE HERE FOR HOW TO SIGN UP TO SPEAK). But don’t just show up and listen. At least get up and say “vote no on the tax hike”.

• The Board needs to hear from you by email. Email them by pasting in these email addresses. 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

  • Tell them:

    • Vote NO on the massive tax hike and lower the millage rate to the rollback rate.

    • Release the detailed budget online immediately.

    • Hear from citizens BEFORE you vote.

    • Ask questions from the staff about what can be cut and demand a revised budget to do so. (They should ignore false revised budgets that will certainly be offered as a “scare” tactic to encourage higher taxes).

    • Remember, Board members, you work for US and are not beholden to the Superintendent and staff of the school board.

IN FREEDOM!