The only thing left to do was vote yea or nay. And by mid-morning Thursday, Fayette County School Board voted unanimously to adopt a revised Maintenance & Operation (M&O) millage rate set at 19.75 mills and a bond debt millage rate of 4.17 mills. The two represent an overall millage increase of 1.754 mills, or $8.2 million.

The millage rates initially proposed earlier in August would have seen the M&O rate go from 18.596 to 19.35 mills and the bond debt service rate increase from 3.55 to 4.17 mills.

Things changed when Gov. Sonny Perdue later announced across the board state cuts that would withhold approximately $2.3 million beyond the austerity cuts already in place for the past several years.

That cut, the school board decided, was sufficient reason to re-advertise a new M&O rate of 19.75, a .4 mill increase over the 19.35 mill rate that had been previously advertised.

Superintendent John DeCotis said until 2001 state dollars accounted for approximately 60 percent of school system revenues. That figure today stands at 48.14 percent, he said.