Board members Monday voted

to reduce property tax rates, but will have to conduct a series of public

hearings as if the board were increasing taxes.

That's because of the Taxpayers

Bill of Rights, a new state law that requires county and city governments

and school boards to either roll back the property tax rate to erase any

windfall from property reappraisals or treat the extra income as a tax

increase.

The new law requires three

public hearings.

The board voted 4-1, with Woody

Shelnutt opposed, to reduce its maintenance and operation tax rate from

19.84 mills to 19.061 mills, and reduce its rate for bonded indebtedness

from 3.69 mills to 3.325 mills. A mill is one dollar per thousand of a

property's assessed value, which is 40 percent of its market value, minus

exemptions.

The market value of most Fayette

properties was increased this year in a state-mandated reappraisal of

properties county-wide. The board's tax rate reduction is not enough to

negate the increased revenue due to the reappraisals, which accounts for

more than half of the increase in property values used to calculate taxes.

The remainder of the value increase comes from new construction and other

changes.

Reducing the M&O rate to

18.79 mills to avoid the public hearings would have forced the school

system to reduce its budget $124.1 million budget by $1 million, and board

members said they have already cut the budget to the bone.

"We went through a great

deal of cutting to get a bare bones budget as it is," said board

Chairman Debbie Condon. "I'm willing to have the three meetings so

that the children get what they need.

Shelnutt argued for making

the additional cuts. "Would it not be wiser, with a bond issue on

the ballot this November, to show our good faith that we're not going

to double dip this fall," he said.

"I think we could make

the budget without having to raise the taxes," Shelnutt said.

Board finance director Jim

Stephens said if the board wanted to reduce taxes enough to negate the

reassessments, it would have take the money from the normal allowance

it sets aside in case there is a larger than usual amount of uncollectible

taxes. "This is also known as the 'cut your own throat' option,"

he said.

Public hearings are scheduled

for Sept. 28 at 8 a.m., and Oct. 5 at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. in the school

board's offices.