The Bibb County Board of Education approved a 5% property tax increase at a special meeting Tuesday night.
The measure was approved in a 7-1 vote with board member Daryl Morton against it.
The vote to maintain the millage rate at 14.674 effectively means the owner of a $200,000 home could expect to pay $63.04 more in property taxes. If the property owner has homestead exemption, the increase amounts to $57.52.
No one spoke during the board’s three public hearings over the past two weeks, but board president James Freeman waived the public speaking policy for a Mercer University English professor who showed up at the meeting after the final public hearing Tuesday.
Elizabeth Harper spoke in favor of the increase and said she has three children who have either attended Bibb County public schools or are currently enrolled.
“I see students come through K-12 systems from throughout Georgia and into my classroom and I really believe that investing in public schools is really important,” Harper said. “It is extremely important for college success. As a member of the community of Macon, I would want to say that businesses judge us by what our educational system is like.”
Harper said her oldest daughter recently graduated from Howard High School and “was affected by teacher turnover.”
“She had, in some cases, a teacher leave mid-year because they could make more money as a dental hygienist,” Harper said. “Even though she has been admitted to an excellent school, she goes there with some of the ramifications of not fully funding public education in Bibb County.”
Maintaining the millage rate is expected to add about $4.3 million to the district’s budget. It marks the first property tax increase since 2016, when the millage rate was increased by 2 mills. The value of 1 mill this year is $5.9 million.
Morton, who voted against maintaining the millage rate when the board tentatively adopted it in August, said he voted against it again because of concerns he had about budget priorities.
“I thought there wasn’t enough focus on the budget in the classroom, where I think there’s the greatest need,” Morton said Wednesday. “There’s no question that teachers are underpaid.”
Morton said the school district has known for two years it needed to save money by closing schools because it has too many buildings and too few students, but “we’re just now getting around to it.”
The district began that process in July by creating a “school consolidation plan” in which groups of stakeholders were established. The plan to start considering school closures comes a little more than two years after the board committed to studying the topic during a called meeting during which then-schools superintendent Curtis Jones said he didn’t “see a way around it.”
“If you’re going to ask people to pay more in taxes, you’ve got to show them you’ve done everything you can reasonably do to contain costs,” Morton said. “I just don’t think we have.”
To contact Civic Journalism Fellow Laura Corley, call 478-301-5777 or email [email protected].
