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REBECCA CATALANELLOThe proposal is bigger than last year's budget, but the millage rate for property owners will be a faction lower.
LAND O'LAKES - The Pasco County School Board gave tentative approval Tuesday to a suggested $636-million budget for the coming school year.
The proposed financial plan represents an 8.41 percent increase over last year's budget but comes with a lower millage rate for local property owners. A mill is $1 per $1,000 of taxable property value. The new rate would be 8.8 mills, compared with 8.9 this year.
Superintendent John Long spoke to what he said were public misconceptions about the effects of Pasco County's $1.5-billion growth in tax rolls on the district.
"There's a general misunderstanding that when our tax rolls go up, we experience a windfall," he said.
Long said the state's equity funding formula does not allow the district to experience a huge increase in revenues as a result of higher tax rolls.
Despite the fact that Pasco County is one of the fastest growing in Florida, its state per-pupil funding increase was the smallest among all 67 districts.
The budget discussion and preliminary vote followed a public hearing during which no one chose to address the board concerning the budget. The budget will be finalized following a final public hearing Sept. 16.
In other business, Hudson resident Daniel Hamm asked the board members to consider naming the next newly constructed school after slain Pasco County Sheriff's Lt. Charles "Bo" Harrison.
"There are a few people in the county who deserve a school to be named after them. He's one," Hamm said afterward.
A 31-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office, Harrison was killed when someone sprayed his patrol car with bullets from a high-powered rifle while on duty June 1. Alfredie Steele Jr., 19, of Lacoochee, has been charged with first-degree murder in the case.