Many in the crowd of 150 people walked away from the Hamilton County Commission meeting Wednesday unhappy the county’s fiscal 2018 budget didn’t include an extra $24 million for public schools.
But some in the crowd, and likely many, many county residents, celebrated the fact the budget didn’t contain a tax increase the additional school funds would have required.
If we have to live within our means, residents were thinking, why shouldn’t the school system? If we have to make do with an aging roof for another year and hope we can keep the HVAC system together with duct tape and baling wire, why shouldn’t the schools?
As it is, thanks to growth money from increased property and sales tax revenues and state funding, the school district will get $8 million more than it did in fiscal 2017. Teachers will get a generous 3 percent raise, and the district will have more money for transportation and custodial services.
The budget was approved 8-1, with Commissioner Tim Boyd casting the lone dissenting vote. He had made a motion the commission wait 30 days to approve the budget – giving time for discussion of ways in which schools might eke out more money – but the motion died for lack of a second.