Final Franklin BOE Millage Public Hearing Tonight Before Vote

The Franklin County Board of Education is its third and final public hearing today on its plan to leave the millage rate the same for the upcoming fiscal year.

A third and final public hearing on the millage takes place tonight at 6p at the Board of Education Administrative Offices, 280 Busha Road in Carnesville.

Afterward, the Board is expected to vote to pass the millage at their meeting beginning at 6:30p.

The Board is recommending leaving the millage rate the same for the next fiscal year at 14.471 mills.

What was published as the legal notice in the local paper states the Franklin County Board of Education has tentatively adopted a millage rate which will result in an increase in property taxes by 4.89 percent.

According to the Board of Education without this tentative tax increase, the Board would have to roll back the millage rate to 13.797 mills in order to keep property taxes from going up.

Speaking Sunday on 92.1’s Community Forum, Franklin County Assistant School Superintendent of Operations Carl Dekker said it’s confusing because nowhere in the required legal notice does it mention that property taxes go up when home values go up.

Dekker said the School Board has no say in how the Tax Assessor evaluates homes and properties.

So as Dekker explained, for property taxes to remain the same next fiscal year, the Board of Education would have to roll back the millage rate, which they cannot afford to do.

Dekker said the loss of federal dollars called ESSER funds which the School System received after the COVID-19 pandemic is a major factor in their decision to keep the millage at 14.471 mills.

Dekker said the School system received approximately $3 million a year in ESSER funds – almost $10 million for the three years it was distributed.

ESSER stands for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.

The federal government discontinued the funding last year.

Now that those funds are no longer available, it will cost the school system about over one million dollars out of the next fiscal budget to fund state-mandated teacher pay raises.

Still, without the ESSER funds and the increased costs in the next fiscal year, Dekker said the school system is looking at a $ 4 million shortfall.

A third and final public hearing on the millage takes place next Thursday, July 25 at 6p at the Board of Education Administrative Offices, 280 Busha Road in Carnesville.

The millage will be set at the Board of Education Meeting on July 25 at 6:30p at the Administrative offices on Busha Road.