Blame it on

growth and lower state funding.

That's the

word from The Coweta County School System after raising its millage rate

this week.

The board raised

the maintenance and operation millage rates by 2.33 mills, to 17.94 mills

for 2003. It is also eliminating the current bond debt millage rate of

1.6 mills. In all, that means a net increase of .73 mills.

School sytem

public information officer Dean Jackson said despite growing by 1,000

students this year, the county actually got $41,000 less in money from

the state.

The smaller-than-expected

funding from the state, along with funding a 3.25 percent raise and keeping

the student-teacher pupil ratio low in kindergarten through third grade

caused the millage rate to be raised, Jackson said.

In June ,

the board adopted a general fund budget of $121 million in expenditures.

Based on state

revenue projections (which are very low this year), the board originally

anticipated that 15.61 mills of tax plus the use of $7 million in system

reserve funds would cover the remainder of the budget this year. This

would allow the millage rate to remain unchanged this year.

Thus, the board

budgeted revenues of $114 million, which causes us to go into our reserves

for the $7 million difference. Of the $114 million of revenues, $69 million

is state revenues and $45 million is local revenues. The local revenues

included a projection of $41.8 million of ad valorem taxes. This projection

was based upon an 8.6 percent growth in the tax digest.

However, actual

growth in the digest reported to the system Sept. 24 was 4.79 percent,

which yielded only $40.3 million in revenues. The revenue was nearly $1.5

million less than the system, expected, Jackson said.

With a net

increase proposed of .73 mills, that means that this year's average household

in Coweta County would see a net increase of $43.80 on their tax bill,

or $3.65 per month when broken down that way.

One possible

reason for the sluggish tax digest is that most of the county's growth

this past year appears to be residential growth, said school officials.

The limited commercial and industrial growth probably has contributed

to the lower digest.

School officials

said the board is also faced with the concern that the current poor economic

conditions could remain the same or even worsen next year.