The budget was a major topic Thursday at the annual systemwide school council meeting. Council members and administrators from each school gathered at the Callaway Conference Center on Fort Drive to hear what happened in previous school years and what’s in store for the future.
The budget, for many reasons, was of the highest priority.
“This is a financial crisis we haven’t seen for several years,” Chief Financial Officer Don Miller said.
The school system’s revenue shows a $7 million drop between the original fiscal year 2009-10 to the projected 2011-12 budget. Along with that are state required salary step increases for some teachers, amounting to more than $1 million in the projected budget.
The state also has been providing less and less funds for systems statewide, Miller said. Since 1989, school systems statewide have seen a decline of about 21.7 percent, leading the Troup system to have a budget funded 57 percent by the state, 8 percent by the federal government and 35 percent by local taxpayers.
School administrative costs also have been eyed both locally and statewide, with systems such as DeKalb County schools having close to 1,000 paid administrators for roughly 100,000 students, Miller said.
Troup County’s administrative budget is about 4 percent of the total budget, and it has about 40 administrators for the county’s 12,000 students.
“If we were eight times larger, we would still only have about 300 (administrators),” he said. “We continue to look at being able to reduce administration.”
Although furlough days have become an important topic as officials are forced to create more days without pay for school staff, it could be much worse, Miller said.
“We can go in and cut people, but that starts destroying capacity,” he said. “… Furlough days seem to be a much more efficient way to (handle budget cuts), and at the end of the day everyone has a job.”
Taxes associated with the Kia Motors plant in West Point also are helping to balance the budget. About $5 million to $7 million total is expected to help offset some of the state cuts and required spending.
On the other side of the issue, the school system puts about $300 million into the local economy annually and continues to be one of the largest local employers, “impacting the lives of 2,700 people on a regular basis,” Miller said.
But the state budget shortfall continues to loom over many entities besides the school system.
Miller and administrators from other school systems said that looking at other areas of the state budget and taking a more balanced approach to the shortfall could help balance the budget more appropriately.
As officials run out of things to cut, reforming the state tax structure, as many states already have, could become a viable option. It’s viable enough for the school system to join with others in asking it be made a legislative priority.
“We’re not a high-dollar school system, but we’re getting high-dollar results,” Troup County board Chairman Davis Nichols said. “Our state, at large, is not living up to its commitment. … That’s not my nature, to be mean-spirited, but I have to tell the truth.”
Troup County, along with the Georgia School Boards Association, are advocating the creation of a commission on comprehensive tax re-form to make recommendations that would include a reformed tax system.
Along with that, having an annual tax expenditure report outlining where exemptions and credits are authorized and why, the constitutional authority of school boards, and flexibility in spending or allowing school boards to spend based on local need and not state rules are also looked at as priorities for 2010.
“We continue to struggle to protect the resources, to continue to do the job that you’re doing,” Nichols said.
Trey Wood can be reached at twood@lagrange news .com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.
Post a Comment
