BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — The Martin County Board of Education voted 3-2 Monday night to raise the property tax rate to 84.6 cents per $100 of assessed valuation of real and personal property, the first increase since 2017.

Treasurer Ernest Hale presented the relevant data to the BOE for consideration.

Hale explained that the BOE receives SEEK funding each year based on the number of students enrolled. Currently, each pupil guarantees $4,100 in funding.

Since COVID began, school districts have been able to count their pre-COVID enrollment numbers from Fiscal Year 2019. In Martin County, this number was 1,783. Starting next year, however, SEEK funding will be based on current-year enrollment, which is down to 1,576 in Martin County. 

This loss of 207 students translates to a decrease of $848,700 in SEEK funding for the school year.

Furthering the need for an increase in the property tax rate, the assessed value of property in the county is also down for 2023. Within FY2022, assessments fell by $1,783,049 of valuation in the county.

In FY2022, the board collected a property tax rate of 80.9 cents per $100 assessed valuation. The total taxable value for FY22 was $338,541,675. Had the district collected 100%, it would have gotten $2,648,228. However, the district’s actual collected amount was $2,648,228, with a 96.61% collection rate. 

The total taxable value of property in the county for FY23 is $336,758,626. At the same tax and collection rates as FY22, this would yield approximately $2,632,021 in collections for the school district.

The new tax rate of 84.6 will yield approximately $2,752,398 at a 96.61% collection rate, $120,377 more than if the tax rate had been held constant.

Hale pointed out that if 100% collection is reached, the new rate will achieve an increase of over $200,000 in tax revenue. 

The rate increase to 84.6 is 4% above the compensating rate for FY23. The compensating rate is the rate at which 100% collection would match 100% collection in the previous fiscal year. This is the same kind of increase the county saw in both 2013 and 2014.

Individuals with $100,000 in assessed property value in Martin County will see an increase of $34 to their school property taxes this year.

“I’m not for taxes, but what are we going to do?” commented Martin County Schools Superintendent Larry James. “We’ve got six buildings, including this building. Electricity, heat, you know, those things are only going to go up.”

BOE Member Steven Gauze compared the situation with the water district.

“The thing that gets me about our water department, everybody loved it when our rates didn’t go up for years and years and years and years, and then all at once, it crashes,” said Gauze. “I don’t want that to happen to our school system.”

Gauze, Booie Clark and Kathleen Price voted in favor of the tax increase. Mickey McCoy and Lorna Cassidy voted “no.”

Following the meeting, James commented, “We all hated to do it, but with the loss of 200 kids, which equals a loss of about  $848,000, that is very tough to overcome.”