CORRECTION: Newton County School District is requesting an $198,832 increase in ad valorem taxes . A previous version stated otherwise. We regret the error and are happy to set the record straight.
Newton County School District is budgeting for $3.1 million from ad valorem taxes for the 2019-2020 school year, about a $198,000 increase over last year’s tax revenue of $2.9 million.
In a public budget hearing Friday, Cay Clark, director of Finance for NCSD, said the increase in ad valorem is needed to make up for decreased funding from the state.
“When we’re getting cuts from the state, that’s the only other option we have,” she said.
Over the course of the next year, Newton County schools will spend $9.9 million on instruction, which includes salaries for teachers, money for textbooks and purchases that directly go toward classroom instruction, Clark said.
The district will also spend $6.1 million on support services, $1.2 million on non-instructional services, $27,050 on maintaining 16th section land, $1.5 million on facilities acquisition and construction, such as the Peavy building and remodeling the bathrooms at Newton County Elementary School, and $254,000 on debt service.
In revenues, Clark said NCSD will receive $9.4 million from Mississippi Adequate Education Program, the school funding formula used by the state and appropriated by the legislature each year.
“As you can see, we’re not even getting enough from the state to cover our instructional costs,” Clark said.
Overall, Clark said, the district will receive about $10.1 million from the state, which includes MAEP and funds for specialized and support programs, $5.1 million from local sources, $2.1 million from federal sources and about $291,000 from timber sales and leases of the district’s 16th section land.
Although the numbers look big, Clark said, it’s important to remember it takes a lot of money to run a school district. For instance, she said, the district is budgeted to spend almost $300,000 on utilities, $1.27 million on buses and $119,000 on textbooks.
Additionally, Clark said the teacher pay raise passed by the legislature earlier this year is calculated to cost the district more that $120,000. The total cost of the raise will be $340,000, and the state’s appropriation, which has not yet been made, will cover about $220,000.
Retirement and benefits costs for employees has also gone up for the 2019-20 school year, Clark said, for which the district will need to budget an additional $158,000.
“The cost for just the basic stuff is pretty high,” she said.
Requesting an increase in ad valorem tax revenue is not a tax increase. Newton County School District’s request, along with budget requests from Newton Municipal and Union Public school districts are sent to the county to be factored into the overall county budget. Once the Board of Supervisors has approved their budget, a millage rate for taxes will be set to meet the needed revenue.
With no objections from the public, the Newton County Board of Trustees voted to close the budget hearing. The board will vote to approve the budget in their Aug. 12 meeting.
