After a short-lived dispute that involved some name-calling, Polk County commissioners will vote next week on whether to pass along a millage referendum from the school board to the Supervisor of Elections.
“I think we’ve made the point. It’s not ours. It’s yours,” said Commissioner Bill Braswell, pointing towards Polk County Public Schools Superintendent Frederick Heid during an agenda review meeting on Friday.
After moving to delay a vote on the referendum to January, the commissioners decided Friday to put it on next week’s agenda for a vote.
“This board wanted to make a clear distinction as to who is the origin of this tax increase, millage increase. I think we’ve succeeded,” said Braswell.
“The mere fact that the citizens are going to look at us as the ones that are raising the millage rate, that’s the point,” said Commissioner Martha Santiago.
Commission chair Rick Wilson also shared concerns about voters thinking it was the county asking for a millage increase.
“Our school board and our teachers do a great job but when it comes to this kind of stuff, ya’ll know what happens with the public and we wanted to make sure that who was doing it was going to get all the credit for it,” he said.
Florida statute requires county commissioners be involved in this process, which led to a lawsuit in Hillsborough County last year.
County commissioners said they are calling on the legislature to take this responsibility away from county commissions.
“I think that’s fantastic if they can get some change. School districts have been asking for that change for a number of years,” said Heid.
“We might be called liars and cowards but we’re not. We knew what the deal was and we wanted to investigate it,” said county commissioner Rick Wilson.
It was Polk Education Association President Stephanie Yocum who called commissioners cowards last week.
“I said what I said,” said Yocum Friday. “For them to say that they don’t want anything to do with it, I would still stand by what I said – that’s cowardly.”
The referendum had the unanimous support of another elected body: the Polk County School Board.
The draft referendum reads:
“For teacher and staff recruitment and retention, career and technical education, school safety, arts, and early learning purposes, shall the School Board of Polk County, Florida levy an additional 1.0 mill in ad valorem taxes annually from July 1, 2027, through June 30, 2031 with 80% being focused on salaries and 20% on the program areas listed with proceeds shared with charter schools as required by law and monitored by an independent citizens’ oversight committee?”
“We are ranked 63 out of 67 districts in school funding. We receive on average $300 less than all of the surrounding large urban districts per pupil,” said Heid to the commissioners during the agenda review meeting.
Heid said teacher salaries in Polk County are between $5,000 – $7,500 a year lower than in surrounding districts.
A referendum is the only way to “be competitive,” Heid said.
“We are one of the only school districts in central Florida that has not passed a tax referendum,” said Heid. “We want to make sure that we’ve got the best possible teachers in our classrooms, we’re filling every vacancy and again, we’re paying all of our staff a true living wage that we can compete with our neighboring districts with.”
The county commission will vote next Tuesday to pass along the referendum to the supervisor of elections.
If approved, it will be on the ballot next November.