Board in 'no mood' to raise taxes
By Steve Herring
Published in News on May 6, 2016 1:46 PM
Chairman Joe Daughtery
There is no mood in the county to raise taxes to meet the estimated $60 million to $75 million in school facility needs, Wayne County Commission Chairman Joe Daughtery said.
"As both of us (commissioners and school board) are aware, all of the resources that had been accumulating for the schools -- lottery funds, sales tax dollars and so forth -- have actually been allocated on these new schools (at Grantham and Spring Creek) and improvements," Daughtery said Tuesday during a joint meeting of the two boards. "The dollars are gone folks. I am sorry. But let's make sure that we recognize that.
"So that means what we now are asking is that (funding) from the county dollars because that is where those dollars are coming from -- from the county in order to fund the construction of the new schools. With that in mind we have got to recognize that we have a different situation today than we had just a few years ago."
Commissioners are interested in reviving good schools, Daughtery said.
But the school board is going to have to demonstrate that the system is using all of its existing facilities in order for commissioners to justify as they go to find the dollars out of the county taxpayers, he said.
"This board, and I think I can speak for this board, even though some of them have left, they are not in the mood for a tax increase," Daughtery said. "I can tell you that.
"With that in mind we are going to have to structure a plan that is amenable to both boards and to taxpayers out there, and that is a difficult thing to structure. We are hoping the board of education will work with us and be flexible as we craft a plan to put forth in improving our schools in the short run."
School board member Arnold Flowers told Daughtery he was right.
"Thank you for reminding us all that all that has been paid for up to this point has been paid for with school funds," Flowers said. "The county has not come forward really. To some degree, but the majority has been school funds."
Daughtery said he did not make his comments to put it in "those terms."
Flowers, who is a former commissioner, said that in his opinion that previous boards of commissioners and previous generations did not put their emphasis on schools in Wayne County.
"They put emphasis on other things," he said. "I don't want to call names because I not want to step on anybody's toes. I recognize the county has all of these different programs that you have to fund.
"What I am trying to say is that over the course of the past 25 years, I am going to pull a number out of the air, Wayne County has not put its emphasis on education and improving our schools so we are to some degree behind."
Commissioners are trying to address that as best they can, Daughtery said.
"This board of commissioners that we have right now, this county manager, have done as much as anyone, and I was born raised in Wayne County," Flowers said.
"I think the chairman (Daughtery) hit it right on the head," County Manager George Wood said. "I think we need to sit down probably with the (school board) chairman and superintendent once we have some idea where we are at and start formulating a plan on how we can move forward.
"One thing we do need to remember is the lottery funds, despite the fact that the state stole about half of them back in 2009, and we all know that, and if they didn't do that, we wouldn't be having such a difficult time financing this."
However, the lottery does still grow a little bit every year, as do sales tax revenues, Wood said.
"Part of the formulation of the plan we are going to come to you is we will have some additional volume in sales tax money each year," he said. "So we need to factor that in as we decide how we are going to pay for this.
"But the chairman is right. I don't think anybody is looking to raise taxes. But there are those sources that will grow. We just need to do some estimations on that and see where that gets us. We haven't figured that one out yet. We are getting there, but we haven't figured that one out yet."