Gainesville school taxes to drop; redistricting discussed again

GAINESVILLE - Gainesville property owners will see a small drop in taxes thanks to a reduction in the millage rate by the Gainesville City School Board.

The Board Tuesday morning gave first reading approval to a millage rate of 7.39 mills.

School System Finance Director Janet Allison said the rate is a drop of .30 mills from last year.

"So for the taxpayer that means about a $30 savings for every $100,000 worth of assessed [property] value," said Allison.

Allison also told board members that the system will have to use $3-million dollars of its $6-million dollar surplus to balance the budget and give taxpayers a break.

"If everything stays the same this year, you know, we'll be in as good a shape as we can be in," said Allison. "If things change, we'll still have a little bit of a cushion."

The final millage rate will be adopted on September 19.

REDISTRICTING MAPS DISCUSSED

Gainesville School Board members and Gainesville City Council members are hoping they can agree on one redistricting plan for the entire city, rather than having two voting maps.

Three members of city council, Mayor Ruth Bruner, Councilman Bob Hamrick and Councilman George Wangeman, sat down with the school board to look at the map drawn by school officials. While there was no formal action on the matter, all agreed the school board map was a viable option for Gainesville voters. And Mayor Ruth Bruner agreed to bring the matter before council at its September 6 meeting.

She noted that the Gainesville city clerk and the city attorney had also devised a map that is somewhat different than the one the school board has proposed, but she emphasized that her hope is that city officials can come to an agreement without getting state officials involved in negotiations.

"And,whatever map we [council members] choose that it would be the same map as, hopefully the board of education would choose," said Bruner. "I think the citizens would be very confused if we end up with two maps."

City School Board Attorney Phil Hartley said there's still a long way to go before a new map is approved.

"As we've known from the beginning, it will not be in effect for this year's election, but should be complete totally with Justice [Department] approval sometime in the spring of next year," said Hartley.