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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2010 11:49:23 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2011 17:39:48 GMT -5
I read this in the GVN. New home sales are as low as they can be. More taxes on homes shows how dumb GV councilmen are.
Greenville County Schools will explore the possibility of charging impact fees on new homes built in the district, after School Board members voiced support for the idea this morning.
Trustee Leola Robinson-Simpson brought the subject up at a work session on the 2011-12 budget. She said other fast-growing districts in the state – in Horry, Beaufort and York counties – have taken steps toward that already.
“Given the loss in revenue that we’ve experienced … I think we should follow suit,” she said.
Finance Director Jeff Knotts said the district has suffered $52.5 million in state budget cuts over the past three years, which raised the student-teacher ratio by 1.5 students and led to a reduction of 52 positions through attrition.
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Post by diamonddave on Apr 28, 2011 16:06:50 GMT -5
Maybe they ain't all that dumb, just desparate. What they need is for Larry Martin to pass a law that makes it illegal to do that as of January 01, 2013. That would be after the 2012 election, & it would give them a window to carry out their plan. Not only that, it would give Pickens County time to follow along too. Hasn't something like that happened before  |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2011 5:00:38 GMT -5
From the Greenville News
School taxes increased by 4.7 mills in Greenville County
Board had to find $5 million even after lawmakers overrode Haley vetoes
The Greenville County School Board voted Wednesday to raise taxes by 4.7 mills and keep intact its budget that reduces class sizes and gives raises to teachers.
Even with the Legislature overturning Gov. Nikki Haley’s vetoes that would have put the school district in a $15 million hole, the board had to come up with $5 million to balance its budget, or make cuts before the new fiscal year starts Friday.
“I believe it is a good solid budget,” Superintendent Phinnize Fisher said. “The purpose of that budget was to try to restore not all but at least restore some of the loss to the classrooms that we have experienced in years past.”
Haley’s vetoes would have cost Greenville County Schools $10.5 million, but the district’s budget would have been in the red by about $15 million because the final version of the state budget had less going to schools than the earlier version that the district based its budget on, according to Pam Mills, legislative liaison for the district.
The tax increase will cost the owner of a $25,000 car $7.05 and the owner of a $200,000 commercial property $56.40, according to district officials.
The millage increase will generate $5 million — the same amount the district will lose in state funding of the base student cost from the earlier version of the budget.
The plan also calls for drawing $4.7 million from the district’s $49.8 million reserve fund.
Trustee Pat Sudduth asked why the rest of money needed to balance the budget couldn’t come out of that fund instead of raising taxes.
Deputy Superintendent Burke Royster said that would pull the fund below the level the board has set in policy for emergencies, to cover expenses when property tax revenues are slow coming in, and to keep the district’s bond rating up, which saves on interest rates.
Sudduth voted against the budget, as did Danna Rohleder, who passed on the roll call vote until the outcome was decided. Crystal Ball O’Connor and Lynda Leventis-Wells were out of town.
The superintendent presented the revised budget after the House had overridden the vetoes, and the board took a break in its meeting to watch the Senate online as it voted before acting on the district budget.
Other Upstate districts based their budgets on a state budget version passed by the House, which was adopted before additional tax revenues were projected and added to the version of the budget Greenville used.
The final version put the base student cost at $1,880 — the same as it was in 1998, Fisher said.
Pickens County had set aside $1.25 million in two contingency funds that could be drawn upon if the final state budget was lower, according to spokeswoman Julie Thompson. That’s in addition to the approximately $15 million in the district’s reserve fund, she said.
There was no tax increase in Pickens County’s budget.
Anderson District 1 also prepared its budget based on the lower figure.
“We knew there were going to be issues and problems,” said Associate Superintendent David Havird. “So we’ve gone ultraconservative based on what we believed to be accurate at the time.”
The district’s backup plan was to take $941,000 out of its reserves to balance the budget,and raise taxes by 2.56 mills, he said. That still faces a vote by the Anderson County Board of Education.
With the vetoes overridden, the district will be able to avoid dipping so deeply into reserves, give teachers pay raises — something not included in the budget now — or possibly fill a couple of vacant positions, Havird said.
Taxpayers in both districts in Laurens County will face a 2.5 mill tax increase, officials there said.
Laurens 55 had a contingency fund that could be used to offset a budget based on Haley’s veto, Superintendent Billy Strickland said.
Laurens 56 would have had to increase the number of furlough days to five for teachers and 10 for administrators if the vetoes were sustained, according to Gerald Robinson, the district’s finance director. As it now stands, teachers will take three days off without pay and administrators six.
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Post by alexsaitta on May 15, 2012 13:33:03 GMT -5
From the Greenville News:
The Greenville County School Board accepted on first reading a budget that calls for a 7.5 mill tax increase, with some trustees arguing that the district should take the full 11.98 the law allows and others bemoaning that the Legislature has “forced” the board to burden local taxpayers.
The tax increase would cost the owner of a $25,000 automobile $11.25. The owner of a $200,000 commercial property would have to pay another $90, and a $200,000 manufacturing plant’s tax bill would be up $157.50.
Homeowners would not be affected by the change.
The additional millage would raise about $7.9 million to help balance a $464.2 million budget, based on the House version of the state budget.
Can you believe this? Greenville raised taxes 4 mills last year. You get the government you elect.
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Post by dreinert on May 16, 2012 7:47:28 GMT -5
"You get the government you elect. "
Indeed.
"bemoaning that the Legislature has “forced” the board to burden local taxpayers."
Isn't it always the same, blame someone else, the state, the federal government, for poor fiscal management and failing to live within your means? It isn't like the average middle class citizen also hasn't been hit hard, it's not like middle class wages haven't stagnated, it's not like food prices haven't gone up. The people are expected, they have no choice, to adjust and live within their means. We can't simply go to the boss and demand more pay, and unlike government entities we surely can't just forcefully extract it from them. Yet, school districts in particularseem too have this mentality that they should be immune from the pains of economic reality, and for too long they were because they would simply keep increasing taxes, as we see Greenville doing again. We should be glad we here in Pickens County have a conservative leaning school board containing some average blue collar citizens which understands money and the people they actually represent, and works to keep our costs and taxes in line. Remember, it wasn't always that way.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2013 18:36:26 GMT -5
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Post by alexsaitta on Aug 29, 2013 3:49:07 GMT -5
In Greenville, their trustees make $10,000. I find it amazing the Greenville School Board can just vote to raise their pay. In Pickens, the state legislature has to do that.
The school board in Pickens makes $3,000 a year. Our board has not gotten a pay raise in 25 years. It is lower than most councils in the county.
The problem you run into with such a low pay level, it is difficult to get the upstanding/ high caliber citizen types to run who just want improve things. I’ve tried to recruit them to run. Most all say, it is not worth the trouble.
It is also difficult to get average Janes/ Joes to run too, because they can’t devote the time. There should be a single mom on the school board (we serve so many single moms), but they can’t afford to run and serve.
In general the school board attracts two types. Those who can afford to volunteer; who have money. So you end up with an upper class on the board, not a cross section of the income distribution in the county. Also, the board attracts those with an axe to grind. A few years ago someone ran because her relative was fired. Another’s wife is a teacher and he felt teachers needed a raise.
I had both issues. I was independently wealthily and I wanted to instill fiscal discipline because I saw the economy downturn coming. My reasoning has broadened over the years and with my kids in the system, but I have to admit at first it was very narrow.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2013 16:58:53 GMT -5
$10,000 is too much for a part-time position. And they are raising taxes every year too!  |
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Post by liberty on Apr 23, 2014 8:10:59 GMT -5
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Post by alexsaitta on Apr 24, 2014 5:52:01 GMT -5
In my opinion, the Greenville School Board exhibits all the things wrong that have gotten the traditional public school system in SC in the doghouse with the state legislature. First, the GV board refuses to do what everyone else is doing in this country – living within its means. GV has been raising school taxes most every year. Second, it blames the legislature exclusively for the problem. Third, GV is getting an extra 700 students so its state funding will rise because of that, but that isn’t being mentioned by the trustees. It is a very one sided point of view that does nothing but erode legislative support for traditional public schools.
The trustees demand the legislators to act now. Well, the legislature has been acting, but not in the way the trustees have demanded. First the legislature has put school boards on an allowance, have significantly cut their fiscal independence (Act 388). Second, the legislature is going about creating an alternative, more flexible and less expensive system of charter schools and school choice.
This article also confirms what I’ve said earlier, surrounding districts are facing some big deficits this year. Oconee has stated their deficit is $4.5 million, Greenville $13 million, Anderson 1 at $1 million and I haven’t heard about Anderson 4. Our deficit on the first pass was $263,000.
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Post by columbia on Apr 25, 2014 8:40:07 GMT -5
Every time I visit Greenville they are building something new like a hotel or a new business. And thee Greenville School board doesn't have enough funds? I read today in the Greenville Rag the school board is proposing another tax increase. Just like they sip their coffee in the morning.
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Post by diamonddave on Jul 10, 2015 12:43:08 GMT -5
In Greenville, they don't sip anything, including Martinis. They swallow it whole.
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