Thanks to lower than expected expenditures at the end of the year, the Hall County School Board rolled back the millage rate more than originally planned for the FY 2020 budget.
Board members Monday night set the rate at 17.55 mills, down from the proposed rate of 17.8. The current millage rate is 18.2.
"We are about 3.4% behind on expenditures, so we could have either added that to the ending balance for this year...or we could reduce the millage rate," said Board Chairman Nath Morris. "We always wanted to reduce the millage rate to the extent that we could without dipping too much into reserves."
Morris said the school district has what he called a healthy ending balance, but he noted that board members want to be careful with depleting the fund balance too much in the event of unexpected expenses.
Morris said there had been discussion at the budget hearing at 11:30 a.m. on Monday of rolling back the rate even more, but the Board opted instead to use $240,000 fund $100 supply cards for classroom teachers at the onset of the new school year.
The bulk of the $270 million budget for the new year, which goes into effect on Monday, July 1, will be spent on employee salaries and benefits. Superintendent Will Schofield noted that 87% of the budget goes to salaries and benefits, and a large portion of that expenditure is dictated by the state.
Follow this link to get complete details on the budget for FY 2020.
