With the month of August in full swing, kids across the country are going back to school. In preparation for the upcoming academic year, the Hernando County School Board held the first of two public budget hearings at the end of July.
The district’s academic leaders voted 4-1 to approve the tentative millage rate and voted unanimously to approve the tentative budget as well as the authorization to submit certification of school taxable value to the Hernando County Property Appraiser.
On Tuesday, Chief Financial Officer Joyce McIntyre, Finance Coordinator Dionne Brinson, Budget Analyst Brittany Hunt, and Financial Analyst Angelina LaMantia came before the board to detail the proposed budget and millage rate for Fiscal Year 2024-2025.
The tax roll was certified by the property appraiser on July 1, and the Florida Department of Revenue certified the 2024-2025 estimate tax roll, “which is the basis for determining required local millage for the Florida Education Finance Program,” McIntyre stated.
Later that month, the commissioner of education certified the required local effort (RLE) millage rate that amounted to 3.0230, which includes a prior year millage adjustment of 0.005. This is added to the Discretionary Operating Millage (.7480), the Capital Outlay (1.5000), and the Additional Voted Operating Millage (1.0000).
The combined millage rate for the proposed plan totals 6.2710 mills, which is 2.90 percent more than the rolled-back rate of 6.0944 mills. The rolled-back rate is the tax rate that would produce the same amount of income as the previous year.
When comparing the total millage rates from 2023-2024 to this year, there was a reduction of 0.0690 while the taxable value increased by an estimated $1.3 billion (a 7.26 percent increase in the tax base). The proposed rate is expected to generate just over $115 million in revenue, which is an increase in $6.65 million over the previous year.
McIntyre’s presentation showed the impact of the new rate on homes of varying values. She stated that for homes valued at $250,000, the homeowners’ school taxes would decrease by $15.53 a month from 2023-2024. This would assume that the house did not increase in value while there was a 7.26 percent increase in the tax base, which is an unlikely assumption. Due to the increase in value of a $250,000 house, you would most likely see an increase of just under a hundred dollars.
Regarding the tentative budget, it is comprised of five unique funds, including General, Food Service, Special Revenue, Debt Service, and Capital Projects Funds.
The project revenues for each program are listed below:
General Fund – $284,993,850
Appropriations by Object:
Salaries and Benefits – $188,818,817 (79.91 percent)
Materials and Supplies – $17,010,041 (7.20 percent)
Purchased Services – $16,816,338 (7.12 percent)
Energy – $7,437,000 (3.15 percent)
Capital Outlay – $3,216,408 (1.36 percent)
Other Expenditures – $1,724,386 (0.73 percent)
Other Financing Uses:
Transfers Out – $1,261,457
Projected Ending Fund Balance at 6/30/2025 – $48,709,403
Food Service Fund – $31,582,148
Operations are accounted for this financially self-sustaining program in a separate special fund revenue. Funds are generated primarily through five sources: federal reimbursement of student meals, federally provided USDA commodities, a limited amount of state supplement, and cash sales to students and adults.
Special Revenue Fund $22,051,290
73 percent is allocated to salaries and benefits, 11 percent is allocated for purchased services, 11 percent is for capital outlay and other expenditures, and the remaining 5 percent is used for materials and supplies.
Debt Service – $17,907,013
“Debt service funds are used to account for the accumulation of resources for payments of general long-term debt, principal, and interest,” noted Brinson.
Capital Projects – $141, 169,139
“Capital project funds account for the financial resources used for the acquisition or construction of capital facilities and equipment,” Brinson added.
29.85 million of the balance is already designated for projects begun in the previous year.
General Fund appropriations were broken down further in that 78 percent is for “school level programs,” 18 percent represents “transfers and funds balance,” and 5 percent is for “school support functions.” McIntyre continued that “71 cents out of every dollar is allocated to instruction, which includes primarily salary and benefits for teachers and other employees as well as supply cost.” There is also a projected unassigned ending fund balance of roughly $16 million, which amounts to 6.94 percent of the General Fund revenues.
With transfers present, the quintet combines for $497,703,440 to make up the totality of the proposed 2024-2025 iteration of the budget. Without the transfers included, it amounts to $485,438,617.
The Truth in Millage (TRIM) process provides citizens with the opportunity to voice their opinion regarding the potential budget, though none of the public felt strongly enough to come forward with a comment at Tuesday’s hearing. The school board will convene again for the final budget hearing at 5:01 pm on September 10, 2024.
