Faced with

the grim news of still more cuts in state funds, a somber Fayette County

Board of Education on Tuesday amended its 2003-04 budget and reluctantly

agreed to raise school taxes by 12.29 percent starting Oct. 1.

That represents

a necessary 1.29 mill increase in the operations portion of county property

taxes, comptroller James Stephens told the board.

However, the

operations millage hike will be offset by a reduction of .29 mills in

the bond millage, used to pay back loans on school construction projects.

The 1-mill

net increase will still mean about $80 more in school taxes paid yearly

Without it,

Stepehens said, the district faces dire financial straits.

It will end

September in the red and have to borrow money to meet payroll, Stephens

said.

A freeze on

spending for all non-instructional accounts is pending, he said. That

follows a plan for belt-tightening laid out last year when the board ran

out of money in December, Stephens said.

"End of

September is our really critical time," he said.

the digest from Tax Commissioner George Wingo just a few days early, Stephens

said there's hope collections on county property will come in a bit earlier

than in the past and keep the district from running out of money completely

in December.

Wingo is betting

that the state approves the county's tax digest in time to mail bills

this year on all county property, protests were few and he doesn't expect

any major holdouts in payments.

Not going broke

at Christmas would be good news for the school system, because it only

gets more grim:

An order by

Gov. Sonny Perdue to his department heads to slash budgets for the current

year by another 2.5 percent will include education funds already promised

to local districts.

The annual

mid-term adjustment from the state, a sure bet in the days when the state

economy was growing like kudzu, is doubtful; Fayette County was counting

on $1 million next spring from the distribution.

Education

money from the state will be cut another 5 percent minimum, across the

board, for fiscal year 2005, Stephens reported. All total, that represents

$8 million in state money no longer coming to Fayette County.

Superintendent

John DeCotis, facing another hard-sell to the community this school year,

appeared angry and frustrated.

"We're

not happy we've been cut $8 million by the state in two years," he

said, refering to reductions in austerity funds and other mechanisms.

"We're not happy that they had an opportunity to do something about

it, and didn't."

A special called

session of the legislature that could have righted some of the wrongs

isn't going to happen, Decotis said.

Worse, he said,

were the "unfunded mandates" that state officials continue to

hand down to the local level, without any means to pay for them.

DeCotis said

a survey of all 180 school systems in the state showed the vast majority

had to raise their tax rates for this year.

"I hope

everybody remembers the position we were put in by the legislature,"

he said.

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