Tax digest down more than projected

GAINESVILLE - The tax digest used by the Hall County Board of Education is lower than expected, meaning a loss of another $2 million to the new budget.

"We have received our preliminary local tax digest, and it is disappointing," Schools Supt. Will Schofield said Monday. "The total digest is down approximately $138 million or 2.4%. This was a little more than the 1.5% or $88 million we had projected."

Schofield said the unexpected "negative surprise" comes in the form of further dramatic increases in local school tax exemptions.

"That line item has increased almost $51 million in one year, and represents a one year increase of 5.8%. The net effect of these two factors is that we will now have to plan to accommodate the loss of an additional $2 million to our FY 2011 General Fund budget."

Schofield added "A positive piece of information is that our local real estate sales price-to-tax ratio remains very low in spite of the contrary national trend."