The Volusia County School Board approved a $1.36 billion budget on Tuesday and a corresponding tax increase, again making it the largest public budget in the county.
It surpasses even the county budget, which has been preliminarily approved at $1.06 billion for the 2022-23 fiscal year.
“That’s the largest budget we’ve ever had. That’s a lot of money to manage,” Board member Linda Cuthbert noted after a presentation of the financials.
The budget is nearly $190 million, or 16.1%, more than last year’s budget of over $1.17 billion.
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Instruction, building improvements make up large chunk of budget
Of the $1.36 billion budget, $1.19 billion is estimated for actual expenditures, and the remainder is left for transfers and an ending fund balance.
Nearly $495 million of the budget is dedicated to instruction costs, which come from the district’s general fund and special grant revenue.
The district and teachers union, Volusia United Educators, agreed in January to raise the base pay for teachers to $47,500. The district also raised the pay for support staff to $15 anhour on July 1 for all employees not already making that amount, which preempted a state requirement to do so by Oct. 1.
Volusia County Schools is the largest employer in the county with around 7,800 staff members. It also has nearly 66,000 students.
Almost $300 million, the next largest expense, is planned for facilities acquisition and construction.
Some of the major projects budgeted for 2022-23 are new construction and renovations at Woodward Avenue Elementary, Turie T. Small Elementary, Tomoka Elementary, Starke Elementary, Orange City Elementary, Enterprise Elementary and McInnis Elementary.
View the full budget here:Volusia County Schools 2022-23 budget
The budget includes federal, state and local revenues, witha base allocation of $4,587.40 per student from the state. Though that number increases every year, “the funding for K-12 funding in recent years has really not kept up with inflation,” Todd Seis, the district’s new chief financial officer, said.
While the base allocation increased by5%, inflation based on the Florida Consumer Price Index was 7%, he noted.
He also noted that the district only receives 96 cents back for every dollar it sends to the state, resulting in a loss of $11.8 million dollars versus if it received every dollar back.
Tax rate drops while property values soar
The school board also unanimously adopted a tax rate of 5.482, a decrease of 5.5% from last year’s rate of 5.802.
The rate includes 3.230 in Required Local Effort and 0.004 in Prior Period Funding Adjustment Millage, which are required to receive approximately $243.7 million in Florida Education Finance Program funding, Seis said.
It also includes a standard 1.500 in capital outlay millage and 0.748 in discretionary operating millage, the latter of which is also required to receive another $7 million in funding from the state, he said.
The tax rate of 5.482 means that a homeowner would pay $5.482 for every $1,000 of taxable property value.
For a home valued at $150,000 with a $50,000 homestead exemption last year, the homeowner would have paid $580.20 in school property taxes under last year’s rate.
Assessed taxable values in Volusia County increased 17.77% to over $56 billion this year, but the Save our Homes legislation limits the annual increase in the assessed value of homesteaded properties to whichever is less of 3% or the National Consumer Price Index. This would limit the tax on the same house with the exemption to around $573 this year based on a $154,500 valuation from the 3% increase and the new rate of 5.482.
If the home was recently bought with the increased market price of 17.7%, it would be valued at $176,655. With the $50,000 homestead exemption obtained, the new homeowner would pay around $694 in school property taxes.
The rolled-back tax rate, the rate which would generate the same amount of revenue as last year based on this year’s taxable property value, is 5.0283. Since the proposed rate is 9.02% higher, it is considered an ad valorem tax increase, but new homeowners will see the increase rather than existing homeowners with the assessment cap.
Flagler Schools recently passed a total budget of $290.3 million with $201.3 million for expenditures and the remainder for transfers and an ending funding balance. It also adopted at tax rate of 5.546.
Contact reporter Danielle Johnson at djohnson@gannett.com.
