![]() ![]() They are people who are driving buses for the benefits. “I totally agree with tweaking a budget, but in those same lines - even though we are with a $118 million budget - tweaking a budget represents families, and we are very mindful of… every tweak. School board member Brandon Brooks responded to the request saying the “tweaks” are not as easy to make as they sound. Tweaking a budget is what we ask you to do.” That can be done very, very easily with some of the figures we gave you. ![]() “You may not have children in school right now, but we are at a point in our lives where our incomes are lower, our property taxes are more, and we are asking you to cut this $118 million budget 3 to 4 percent. We have done this for years, and I know we don’t have children in school,” said Marcelene New, president of the Tax Relief for Troup County Property Owners group. “Whether or not you do it, is a horse of a different color.“We are not asking for the moon. You know what we want you to do,” he said. “I’m sure all of you have made up your minds. “You have to make cuts in some places, and you are pretty much the best qualified to be able to do that because you should be able to see these figures on a regular basis,” Foster said.Ĭhuck Franklin said he believes the board has made up his mind. He said if the tax relief issue is administrated correctly, it shouldn’t harm teachers or children. “And I believe it’s not going to go away until the taxpaying citizenry believes that they’ve been treated fairly and represented by their elected school board member.” “This issue of senior tax relief is a community issue,” Foster said. That would have caused a $2.7 million impact to the school system budget.īefore the Miller presented his options to the board, a couple of members of the tax relief group spoke.Ĭlaude Foster said the issue of tax relief isn’t going away until seniors feel they have been treated fairly. She said however the board votes on Thursday night it needs to stand behind its decision.Īnother option presented by Miller Thursday night was an income cutoff of $50,000, which would have affected 3,003 seniors. “We are not turning a deaf ear to the heartbreaking stories. “Everybody up here has a heart for who needs help,” she said. She said it has been on the minds of board members since September when the issues were first expressed. School Board Member Cathy Hunt said she didn’t want to give the appearance that Monday night was the first-time board members ever thought about tax relief for seniors. However, he urged the crowd to keep in mind that the system is offering several services to people who need it. He said TCSS can try to get more efficient in the buildings and bus routes. “It is going to affect people, employees and families,” he said. He said the cuts would end up affecting people. It’s not easy to do when you are doing $30,000 to $40,000 at a time.” “The question is where to do you find another $1.7 million on top of that. “We put a lot of money into instruction to keep class sizes low and we hope to continue to do that,” Shumate said. He touted the small class sizes within the school system, adding that many are within 20 to 24 children. ![]() TCSS Superintendent Brian Shumate said the school system can get leaner and still make progress without affecting the classroom. Miller said the proposed option is feasible for the school system, although it will require getting leaner in the budget. ![]()
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