Thursday
May072009
« Hearings on Gwinnett schools budget »
Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 12:42AM
The Gwinnett County School Board has scheduled two public hearings for its 2010 budget. The first meeting is tonight at the Instructional Support Center on Old Peachtree Road in Suwanee. The second meeting will be May 14 before the board meeting where a vote will be taken on the budget.
The big point of emphasis here is that, despite growth in the budget of 5.4 percent, the board managed to avoid raising property taxes. With the county portion of Gwinnett property tax bills expected to increase, this is good news. In an ideal world, newcomers to Gwinnett who are driving the need for nine new schools should have to shoulder the bulk of the cost to build these facilities. Furthermore, families with children enrolled in a Gwinnett school should pay a nominal tax surcharge to reflect the greater value they receive from the school system. Nevertheless, holding the line on tax rates is the most we can realisticly expect, so kudos to the school board for not dipping further into taxpayer wallets.
The big point of emphasis here is that, despite growth in the budget of 5.4 percent, the board managed to avoid raising property taxes. With the county portion of Gwinnett property tax bills expected to increase, this is good news. In an ideal world, newcomers to Gwinnett who are driving the need for nine new schools should have to shoulder the bulk of the cost to build these facilities. Furthermore, families with children enrolled in a Gwinnett school should pay a nominal tax surcharge to reflect the greater value they receive from the school system. Nevertheless, holding the line on tax rates is the most we can realisticly expect, so kudos to the school board for not dipping further into taxpayer wallets.
Reader Comments (1)
I second the praise for holding the line on taxes this year but being at the board meeting last week at Mill Creek I heard the board talk about this. Basically saying Yes we held the line this year but we may not be able to next year or in the coming years. That obviously could happen but the way in which it was brought up is what bothered me. That if a millage rate increase occurs that we should embrace it and go along with it happily since funding from the state is decreasing so much year to year.