Fayette Board of Education votes to raise school tax collections

The Fayette County Board of Education adopted the 2020 millage rate of 19.15 mills at its Aug. 24 meeting, setting the stage for a 2.66 percent tax increase for local property owners.

Superintendent Jody Barrow at the time of the vote expressed his belief that the school board “has been good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars.”

The new Maintenance and Operation millage rate is 19.15 mills, down from the 2019 rate of 19.25 mills, though the decrease still represents a property tax increase.

Assistant Superintendent for Finance Tom Gray at a previous meeting reported that the gross tax digest increased by $363.1 million, or 5.44 percent, and with the net digest increasing $243.1 million, or 4.48 percent.

To avoid levying a tax increase, the school board would have needed to adopt a rollback rate of 18.654 mills. The rollback rate is the millage rate that would collect the same amount of property tax dollars as the prior year.

The adopted rate was 19.15 mills, or .496 mills above the rollback rate, a 2.66 percent tax increase.

The increase equates to an additional $63.49 increase for a homestead property valued at $325,000, and a $54.56 increase for a non-homestead property valued at $275,000.

The previously adopted FY 2021 General Fund budget totaled $228.84 million, with $105.8 million coming from property taxes and $1.2 million from motor vehicle taxes. The school board to balance the budget also used approximately $10.1 million in reserves.

Pertaining to the bond millage rate, the 2020 rate was set at 1.18 mills, down from the 2019 rate of 1.271 mills.