Members of the city school board met with the mayor and three councilmen Monday to discuss the Columbus Municipal School District”s budget, which will be presented tonight in a public hearing at CMSD”s Brandon Central Services office.
Board President Glenn Lautzenhiser denied reports that the district intends to ask the city for a 4.4 millage increase, which would result in a property-tax increase.
Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box said though the board did not formally ask for a specific mill increase, a financial adviser for CMSD indicated during Monday”s meeting that the district faces a shortfall equal to roughly 4.5 mills this year.
Box said the city is already losing population and businesses as people move out to the county — a fact he attributes the city”s high tax rate. He said though there are things the city needs, like new fire trucks, they have resisted raising the millage for the past 2 1/2 years.
He suggested the school board find other ways to address the shortfall rather than asking the city to raise taxes.
“They need to find some areas they can cut, because we”re (the City Council) going to get blamed for it,” Box said this morning. “It”s not acceptable to add that many mills in this economy.”
Box pointed out that the city currently operates on 37 mills, while the city school system gets 64.8 mills.
“I”m not being critical of them at all,” Box continued, “but it”s come to a point where we can”t keep passing this along to the citizens. They”re not going to stand for it.”
Lautzenhiser stressed that no action was requested; the school board simply gave a status update to the city.
“We didn”t leave anything on the table yesterday,” Lautzenhiser said today. “We went down and told them where we were, how we got where we were and put several scenarios on the table.”
Tonight”s budget hearing is open to the public. It starts at 5 p.m. at Brandon Central Services on McArthur Drive.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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