The Carroll County Board of Supervisors approved their budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
The budget will include a four percent increase for the Carroll County School District, which equates to $98,000. Carroll County residents will see a small increase in their taxes due to the request of the school, however, the county itself is not raising taxes.
The board also approved the county’s levy of 106.76 mills. North Central Planning and Development District budget specialist Tony Green said that a mill had decreased and this year; it’s worth $451 less than last year. Carroll County Tax Assessor Wilton Neal said this does include the water management district and people who live in that district, which is mostly in northern Carroll County, pay .76 more than everyone else in the county.
Green sat down with board members again after their 9 a.m. public hearing in Carrollton Monday and their 9 a.m. public hearing in Vaiden Friday to go over the numbers.
Green said the school’s request is on top of what the school already receives from the county. Green said the district asked for a little over $2.5 million in all this year, which includes the increase.
“Whatever the district requests, as long as it isn’t over the four percent they’re allowed, then we have to do it,” Green said.
He said without the request, property taxes would be down all over the county.
The district requested the increase to help with the shortfall it is facing in its fund balance.
Green went over the budget numbers line item by line item explaining whether there would be a decrease or an increase.
Resident Charles Humphries, who opposed the raising of property taxes, said he didn’t agree with raising the property taxes at all. He’s for the taking care of roads and bridges, education, and funding to cover those things, but he is against levying property tax to make it happen.
Humphries said the Carroll County School District receives more than what they’ve requested once all of the funding comes in. He said that he believes that the district should justify the need for their increase and show where every penny has been spent.
In an earlier story, Carroll County School District Business Manager Brett Reynolds said the district requested the increase because the district had a negative cash balance of $278,000.
Reynolds said it was either request the increase or make cuts, and he nor Superintendent Jim Ray wanted to do so, so they chose the former.
Humphries said the district is only in the hole by $100,000, and he didn’t really see the need.
“We had in the paper earlier where there were a long list of names who hadn’t paid their taxes,” Humphries said, although he acknowledged property owners had three years to pay their taxes and can still pay them even after the property has been sold. He said there still shouldn’t be a tax increase on people who were already struggling to pay their taxes.
