April 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
School officials see encouraging signs for revenues
Jeff Cleland, business manager for the Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp., said the district's taxable property values rose from $208.8 million to $210.4 million since last year, a difference of 0.77 percent.
He said the news surprised him, given that county officials told him previously to expect a slight drop in AV. School corporation officials had sought to mitigate the impact of that loss by proposing to spend $8.73 million in 2016, nearly a quarter of a million dollars less than this year's budget of $8.97 million.
Within those numbers, debt service costs are proposed to drop by $51,968, capital project costs by $72,100, transportation costs by $11,900 and bus replacement expenditures by $4,820, reports show.
A public hearing on the proposed budget will be Oct. 6, and adoption will follow on Oct. 20. Both actions will be part of regular school board meetings 7 p.m. at the FRHC Central Office board room, 9423 N. State Road 9.
The slight hike in AV could be a game changer, Cleland said. Nevertheless, he stopped short of saying how much the increase might affect the amount people will pay in school-directed property taxes.
He said not even the Oct. 20 budget adoption would establish a definitive tax rate. Only the Department of Local Government Finance can do that. Cleland said that probably would happen in December.
People can see the school district's specific budget numbers at budgetnotices.in.gov.[[In-content Ad]]
