According to

school finance director Jim Stephens, the Board of Education will reduce

the maintenance and operations tax rate from 19.84 mills charged in 1999

to 19.061 mills in 2000. This reduction is not sufficient to reduce taxes

to the extent required under the Taxpayer's Bill of Right.

This new law

requires that millage rates be rolled back by an amount sufficient to

offset any property tax increases necessitated by reassessments of properties

during the year. This computation would require the board to reduce the

millage to 18.709. This cut would necessitate the elimination of about

$1 million in planned programs from the approved fiscal year 2001 budget.

The law requires

the board to reduce the bond millage rate from 3.69 mills to 3.43 mills,

but the board proposes to reduce the bond tax millage to 3.325 mills due

to an unprogrammed gain in the debt service fund balance in the previous

year. This move, in combination with the maintenance and operations millage

rate decrease, will bring about a reduction in total millage to 22.386

mills, a reduction of 1.1444 mills.

During the

budget development process which culminated in June with the FY 2001 school

budget of $124 million, the board cut approximately $4 million in budget

requests, according to Stephens. Out of that final amount, $107 million

goes for employee salaries and benefits. This leaves about $17 million

for maintenance and operations, which includes heating and cooling the

schools, general maintenance work, the purchase of books and supplies

for 20,000 students and a set aside of $2.5 million to match state construction

grants for middle school expansions.

Stephens noted

that the board must also deal with reductions in state funds totalling

$1.5 million in local fair share and $1.3 million in the state equalization

grant, to be distributed to poorer school districts. There are also numerous

adjustments required by the newly adopted A-plus Education Reform Act.

The board considered

three proposals before deciding to reduce the millage by 1.144 mils, rather

than the 1.544 mils that would have occurred with full implementation

of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

If the board

did not reduce the tax rate at all, it would have collected $2.2 million

more than its budget had anticipated.

"The Fayette

County Board of Education has weighed its options carefully and has set

the course to go with a tax levy that will support minimum requirements

of the school system over the upcoming school year," Stephens said.

A proposed

$65 million bond issue, if passed in the November election, will impose

one mill or less on the taxes to be levied next year.