IF YOU GOThe Dalton Board of Education will hold three hearings on a proposed property tax increase from 7.845 to 8.134 mills. The first two hearings will be at noon and 6 p.m. today followed by a third hearing Sept. 13 at 6:30 p.m. A regular meeting will follow the third hearing for a possible vote on the proposed hike. The hearings and meeting will be at City Hall, 300 W. Waugh St., Dalton, Ga.
Dalton residents have three public hearings starting today to weigh in on a proposed property tax increase of 0.289 mills to fund city schools.
Board of Education Chairman Steve Williams said the proposed hike from 7.845 to 8.134 mills - an estimated annual increase of about $30 on an average home in Dalton - would be the first hike since 2004.
Williams said the increase is necessary because of state cuts that, since 2003, have totaled more than $17 million for Dalton. About 50 percent of the system's funding comes from the state, a higher percentage - and thereby a greater impact - than most districts, he said.
"And for the past two years, [Georgia legislators] have taken more from us in the mid-year adjustment in January," he said.
Officials say the proposed increase would produce about $1 million a year for the school system.
Williams said officials have exhausted their ideas on how to deal with the cuts.
"We had furlough days, cut salaries for every employee of the system from the superintendent on down," he said. "We have done everything from turning off cooling on the water fountains to removing light bulbs from the vending machines."
A.J. Kocher, owner of the Fantasy Factory in downtown Dalton, said the school system needs the money and the millage hit "does not look like too much."
Kocher said Dalton school officials probably didn't look far enough into the future when they decreased the millage rate a few years ago.
"Honestly, it's probably not enough, but there are a lot of unemployed people who don't need the extra taxes," he said. "And there are property owners who don't need more taxes added on."
He said the city of Dalton's proposed 0.099 mill decrease could offset the school system's proposed 0.289 hike to some degree. The net increase for property owners if both measures passed would be 0.19 mills.
Kocher said that almost amounts to a wash.
School board member Rick Fromm said he hopes the increase staves off the impact of state budget cuts until the economy starts to recover.
"With more reduction in state funding expected this year, and another round of both state and local reduction on the horizon for [fiscal year 2012], the cuts are going to become more brutal," Fromm said in a Dalton Public Schools release. "The reality is the dollars to be raised by this small, incremental approach are not going to allow us to restore any of the cuts we've already made."
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