{"id":87286,"date":"2026-11-07T18:53:28","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T23:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=87286"},"modified":"2026-11-07T18:53:36","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T23:53:36","slug":"polk-county-voters-approve-1-mill-school-tax-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/11\/07\/polk-county-voters-approve-1-mill-school-tax-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County Voters Approve 1-Mill School Tax Increase"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Staff<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"928475\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"246\" height=\"164\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 246px) 100vw, 246px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/download-2.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-87288 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #928475; width:345px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Polk County voters approved a <strong>1.0 ad valorem millage (1-mill) property tax increase<\/strong> on November 3, 2026. The measure passed with approximately 60% of the vote (145,311 &#8220;Yes&#8221; to 94,758 &#8220;No&#8221;).<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This marks the first time Polk County voters have passed an operational school tax referendum of this type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Referendum Details &amp; Compensation Breakdown<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Teacher &amp; Staff Salary Increase:<\/strong> School employees\u2014including teachers, paraprofessionals, cafeteria staff, and bus drivers\u2014are set to receive an across-the-board base pay raise of <strong>$3,700<\/strong> beginning in the 2027\u20132028 school year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Revenue Allocation:<\/strong> The levy is expected to generate <strong>$65.6 million to $80 million annually<\/strong> over the next four years (through June 2031):\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>80% ($52.5M):<\/strong> Employee recruitment, retention, and base pay increases.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>20% ($13.1M):<\/strong> School safety and security, fine\/performing arts programs, early childhood education, and career\/technical workforce development.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Charter School Sharing:<\/strong> Local charter schools will receive their statutorily proportionate share (approx. 18%) of the total funds collected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cost to Homeowners<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tax adds $1.00 for every $1,000 of taxable assessed property value (after applying the homestead exemption).<sup><\/sup> For a median Polk County home with an assessed taxable value of around $259,400, the tax translates to an additional <strong>$259.42 annually<\/strong> (roughly $21.60 per month).<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The funding term runs through mid-2031, after which voters would need to vote on extending the millage or letting it expire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Staff Polk County voters approved a 1.0 ad valorem millage (1-mill) property tax increase on November 3, 2026. The measure passed with approximately 60% of the vote (145,311 &#8220;Yes&#8221;&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzExXC9kb3dubG9hZC0xLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJQb2xrIENvdW50eSBWb3RlcnMgQXBwcm92ZSAxLU1pbGwgU2Nob29sIFRheCBJbmNyZWFzZSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.CVpL7ne3qHvDcREgoooulxogKdNZf4v7tRTeJZu9TJAMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[15750,16975,945,15288,19120,19122,17741],"class_list":["post-87286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","tag-education-funding","tag-millage-rate","tag-polk-county-schools","tag-property-tax","tag-school-tax","tag-tax-referendum","tag-teacher-salaries"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87289,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87286\/revisions\/87289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}