The County Commission on Wednesday delayed approval of its over $1 billion budget for a week, but did take action limiting the county schools to the same percentage of county property taxes as the current fiscal year.
At the same time, the county is giving the schools a one-time $5 million that is designed to bring the pay of all teachers to at least $50,000.
The school board had passed a budget that would increase local funding by $20 million.
Supt. Justin Robertson said he had worked closely with County Mayor Weston Wamp on the school budget and said the $5 million could be funneled toward the teacher raises - even though it will not be reoccurring money and not count toward the required "maintenance of effort." Under maintenance of effort, the county cannot give the schools less than it did the year before.
The Hamilton County School Board had asked the commissioners to raise the percentage of county property taxes allocated to schools from 43 percent to 49 percent this fiscal year.
Supt. Robertson said earlier, “We’ve taken our eye off the ball in terms of local funding." He said schools received 54 percent of property taxes in 2008 and 49 percent in 2017.
Commissioner Joe Graham said the schools would be getting almost $7 million in "growth money" from local property taxes and sales taxes in the coming fiscal year.
He also said the schools will receive an additional $12 million from the new TISA state educational funding formula.
Supt. Robertson said the schools' rainy day fund had been at $91.7 million, but will be drawn down to $76.6 million for the upcoming budget.
Lee Brouner, county finance director, said if the schools do not use the one-time $5 million to increase all teacher pay above $50,000 that it "would not exist."
The school board has set a special meeting for Thursday evening to deal with the budget.
School Board member Jill Black said, “Our teachers don’t just deserve the largest raise we can give them - they need it. Full stop. This budget was approved by a majority of tenured members of the school board because it is quite obviously the best option for our teachers and our students.
"As it becomes more and more expensive to live in Hamilton County, we are at risk of losing more and more teachers - good, quality educators - to the surrounding communities. I was prepared to support this budget over a month ago when we were originally scheduled to vote on it and I stand by that.”