GAINESVILLE – The last item on the agenda at Monday evening’s Hall County School Board meeting provided for “Citizens’ Comments”, but it became, in small measure, an opportunity for Will Schofield (Hall County School Superintendent and citizen) to share his greatest concern about the future of Hall County Schools: “How is this community going to pay for education?”
Lisa Bennett recently moved to Oakwood and is an accountant; numbers are important to an accountant, so when she asked from the audience about the funding of Hall County schools and the current state of tax-emptions in Hall County, Superintendent/citizen Will Schofield was very ready to answer.
“The exemptions in our district - of which there are almost a dozen different exemptions - are growing at a rate of ten-percent a year. That is an unsustainable pattern,” Schofield said passionately. “How are we going to pay for education if exemptions continue to grow at a rate of ten-percent? There won’t be enough tax-base to pay for education in Hall County.”
“This board can’t change exemptions,” Schofield began. “Exemptions are voted on by the public; this board doesn’t have any say about whether we have exemptions or whether we don’t.”
An exemption is something that reduces or removes tax liability from an individual or qualifying entity. In Hall County property tax exemptions are granted to senior citizens, disabled veterans, on historical property, agricultural property, conservation use property, and in numerous other situations. Click here to view a list of Hall County tax exemptions.
Board Chairman Nath Morris joined the discussion. “When I came on the board in 2000 the exemption rate was 9-percent; nine percent of our digest was lost to exemptions. We’re at 21.7-percent exemptions right now. There are more agricultural/conservation exemptions in Hall County than in any other county in the state.”
“In our district (Hall County) a mil of tax brings in about $5-million. Compare that to Forsyth County where a mil brings in $12-million,” Schofield said in terms of how so many exemptions reduce the district’s ability to collect tax revenues.
Schofield added that to make matters worse the population growth trends in Hall County are in direct conflict with one another. “We have two polar opposites: a lot of little, young people moving into Hall County (those needing schools) and the “graying-population” (the senior citizens who are exempted from school taxes) is booming…and there’s very little in between.”
Schofield continued, “The question isn’t, ‘Is it right or is it wrong?’ the question from people who run the school district is, ‘How are we going to pay for children’s education?’.”
“And I’ll keep asking that question as long as I’m the Superintendent,” Schofield stated. “We are $700 under the state average in terms of what we spend (per student); I don’t know how we can do it much leaner.”
That statistic places Hall County in the lowest 25 districts in the state. “I’m not sure that’s something to be proud of.”
“We are heading towards a cliff in terms of funding education in the Hall County school district,” Schofield said portentously.
