Rick SmithHamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith is proposing a 40-cent property tax increase to raise teacher salaries and provide art and foreign language classes in elementary grades.
Smith presented a budget to school board members Thursday that increases the school district’s budget by about $34 million, to about $379 million.
The budget proposal still needs school board approval on April 16. Then the Hamilton County Commission would have to approve the tax hike of 40 cents per $100 of assessed value. The average homeowner’s property tax bill could rise by about $150.
If – and that’s a big if – commissioners go along, teachers could see a 5 percent raise, and every elementary school student could have art and foreign language classes.
Smith has spent months making the case for more local schools money but until Thursday, no specific figure has been mentioned.
Christie Jordan, the school district’s director of accounting and budgeting, said the last tax increase the school system received was 2005.
Read more in tomorrow’s Times Free Press