The Fayette

County Board of Education Wednesday tentatively set the

rate for this year's property taxes at 19.84 mills for

maintenance and operation and 3.69 mills for its debt

service Wednesday.

Taxes for

M&O are the same as last year's. The debt service

rate drops slightly from the current 4.15 mills.

The rates

will be formally adopted following a public hearing Oct.

8.

A three to

two vote by the board Wednesday morning shot down a

recommendation from superintendent Dr. John DeCotis to

increase taxes for maintenance and operation to 20 mills.

The slight increase would have provided $370,000, which

DeCotis wanted to earmark for technology.

"I'm

leery of this," said board member Woody Shelnutt.

"People will think we're in a spiteful mode the day

after the SPLOST failure."

"The

voters have spoken and asked for less," added board

member Mickey Littlefield. He and board member Connie

Hale said they believed the public would perceive the tax

hike as retribution for the failure of the one-cent sales

tax vote Tuesday.

"This

is a drop in the bucket," said board chairman Debbie

Condon. She pointed out that the decrease in the debt

service would actually lower the overall millage rate.

"This

is the first of the difficult decisions he (DeCotis) has

to make... he will have many more difficult decisions

down the road," Condon said, in light of funds which

will not be available from the sales tax. She and board

member Greg Powers voted in favor of 20 mills. Shelnutt,

Hale and Littlefield voted against it.