For several months, Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson has been telling anyone who would listen how the school district’s share of property tax revenue has declined more than 10% over the past 15-plus years.
Imagine, he has said, what the district could fund if it had that extra property tax revenue.
Although Robertson and Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp have worked closely on various school projects since the latter’s election in 2022, Robertson’s technically accurate assertion didn’t seem like a complete picture to Wamp. So he and Chief Financial Officer Lee Brouner took a closer look at funding for schools since the Chattanooga City and county school systems merged in 1997.
What emerged was a completely different picture, one that shows when the share of property tax revenue is adjusted for debt service to school facilities and facility acquisitions, the school district received 58% of county property tax revenue in fiscal 2023 and 57% in fiscal 2024.
A few other facts add to the overall picture of local funding for schools: