In setting the Pasco school district's 2009-10 budget target, the Florida Legislature projected that the county would see its local taxable value dip by 11 percent.
District officials didn't believe it for a second. The numbers, they argued, would look even worse.
They were right.
The Pasco property appraiser has released his official tax roll, and the decrease is 13.83 percent -- leaving yet another funding gap for the district to overcome. Schools chief financial officer Olga Swinson expected this to happen to some extent, and now that she has the figures in hand she's working out the total impact and some recommendations for how to deal with it.
The Pasco School Board expects to review the details Tuesday during a budget workshop.
Get inside the world of Florida education with St. Petersburg Times staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek and the rest of the Times education reporting team. We'll bring you up-to-date information about the latest education trends, fads and news and dig deep into Tampa Bay area school issues.
Well, it looks like our board would rather have teachers out of jobs than vote on any tax increase. I am surprised that this article was not posted on the Gradebook as well.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/local/article1016562.ece
Posted by: publicschoolteacher | July 09, 2009 at 08:42 PM
let's be fair to HF:
Are you sure?
Posted by: pirate | July 03, 2009 at 08:50 AM
Ten Connects segment "what's that costing you" just did a story on Pasco County School District and wanted to know why they over paid for the land that for new high school on 52. We are talking over 1.5 million dollars! But yet we are suppose to go without step increases, raises, and paid trainings. Amazing! Oh, by the way, the estimate for the new high school (EEE) is expected to be about 56 million dollars when it is finished in 2010. Someone at district needs to earn a degree in finance because none of this makes any sense.
Posted by: in need of zoloft | July 03, 2009 at 08:12 AM
Lou, she only uses the district car to travel between district facilities, which is certainly a legitimate use of a district vehicle. As Superintendent she has an obligation to check on schools in the district. The fact that she starts her day at a school near her house, where she picks up a district car, before heading to her office in LOL, and then ends her day at that same school is simply coincidence. There is no way that HF would be doing this to make the district pay for her commute to and from work.
Posted by: let's be fair to HF | July 02, 2009 at 11:51 PM
of course the recommendation will be
No steps
have employees pay their own health insurance.
let Heather keep her car.
Posted by: Lou | July 02, 2009 at 03:33 PM