NEWTON COUNTY – The Newton County Board of Education approved a new millage rate on July 18 at the final board meeting of the month. After three hearings and a 4-1 vote, the county’s millage rate for fiscal year 2024 is 16.0, a slight decrease from the previous year’s millage rate of 16.788.

District 1 board member Trey Bailey was the only opposing vote, expressing his concerns for the new set rate and preparing for the rollback of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds in the future.

“The full millage rate rollback is 14.040, but to meet in the middle at a 15.5 millage rate, that would offer us just as much or more revenue, as we created a budget for, and approved a budget for, earlier in the year, or a month ago,” Bailey said. “I would just like for us to be consistent with the logic in which we passed the first budget and also offer the taxpayers another half point of the millage rate.”

Bailey’s dispute was followed by comments from each board member except Anderson Bailey of District 4.

“We need a millage rate that is gonna give us the revenue that we can logically use and meet the obligations financially, consistently,” District 2 board member Eddie Johnson said. “Because if we don’t have it, when there’s an opportunity to get it, we lose out and more than anything else, our students lose.”

“I am all for reducing the millage rate anytime we can,” District 5 board member Abigail Coggin said. “Unfortunately, even if we go back to the rollback rate, taxpayers are still going to have to pay an increase from what they paid last year because our property tax evaluations went up, which we don’t control. We will review the budget next year and review the millage rate and I know we’ve already discussed some additional funds that need to be put into the budget that were unforeseen back in May. So, that’s what worries me is being able to sustain these funds [and] the funding for fiscal year 2025.” 

Shakila Henderson-Baker, board chair and representative of District 3, rebutted Bailey’s apprehensions of the financial impact the county will face regarding the cease of ESSER funds.

“As we talk about how the tax bills have increased not on our behalf, but because people’s property values have gone up, who’s to say that everybody is going to pay that tax bill? Which then means that we may not get the funds that you keep talking about,” Baker said. “We don’t receive those. That’s how we pay our people. If we are unable, if we don’t receive that check – that money to pay our people, we have to go in the ending fund balance to pay the people, the teachers, the custodians, the bus drivers, and that’s not cheap.”

Tuesday’s board meeting marked Benjamin Roundtree’s first hearing as interim superintendent. Roundtree provided concluding remarks welcoming the county’s new educators as they embarked on new teacher orientation this week.

“They are an exciting group of people and they are excited about coming to Newton County and working and I think we’re going to be in really, really good shape,” Roundtree said. “I just wanted to welcome all of our new teachers to our district as they began their new teacher orientation today.”