Manatee 1-mill school tax up for a vote Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know

Editors note: This article first ran online Oct. 1 and in the Bradenton Herald newspaper Oct. 3. The story has been updated and republished to aid voters.

Manatee County voters will decide the fate of a 1-mill property tax for students and school employees on Tuesday.

First approved by 51% of voters in 2018, the tax raises tens of millions of dollars each year, helping the Manatee County School District to offer competitive salaries, longer school days and better programs.

That tax is currently set to expire in June 2022. If renewed, the continued cost to homeowners would be 1 mill, meaning $1 for every $1,000 on a home’s assessed value.

For example, when taking the homestead exemption into account, a taxpayer would owe about $23 per month on a home worth $300,000, the school district reported.

Supporters say the tax is a small price to pay for stronger schools and a better education for students who may one day live and work in Manatee County.

Critics, on the other hand, say that teacher salaries and other important expenses should come from the district’s annual budget, not a referendum that expires every three to four years, putting programs and livelihoods at risk.

Mary Foreman, the School Board’s District 3 member, falls somewhere in the middle. Before she served on the board, Foreman worked for decades as a certified public accountant, and she volunteered on the school district’s Audit Committee.

During her campaign last year, Foreman said she hoped to pull from the district budget, not the referendum, to fund competitive salaries.

But after nearly one year on the School Board, she came to realize that school budgets were a different beast than anything she encountered during her finance career.

Fully funding salaries and education programs was impossible with the base budget, especially when many state and federal funds are restricted to certain uses, she said during an interview.

“I still don’t want to see us relying on the millage for compensation, but my perspective has evolved,” she said. “I’ve gotten a better understanding and gotten my hands dirty in the finances. School district finances are really, really complicated. It’s been eye-opening.”

Foreman vowed to continue working on a plan that relies more on the district budget and less on the referendum when it comes to paying competitive salaries.

In the meantime, she planned to vote in favor of the referendum, much like she did three years ago.

“I held my nose and I voted for it,” she said, describing her mindset during the original vote in 2018. “And I will do it again.”

Other elected officials in Manatee County, including Sheriff Rick Wells and Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, have publicly opposed the referendum’s renewal.

Residents can take a stance during the special election on Tuesday, when polling locations are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

And regardless of whether voters check “yes” or “no” on their ballot, the end result will have sweeping effects on 50,000 students and more than 6,000 employees in the county’s public schools.

Where does the money go?

In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, soon after the referendum passed, Manatee County schools collected more than $37 million in added tax revenue.

That number jumped to $40 million the following year, and to $42.8 million in 2020-21. So where does all that money go?

The added tax revenue pays for higher employee salaries and 30 minutes of extra learning time each day. It also goes toward improving career and technical education, along with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs.

And regardless of how much is collected, each area of the school district receives a fixed percentage. According to the school district, last year’s allocation included:

• 51%, or $21,859,302, for instructional staff.

• 15.5%, or $6,643,513, for STEM programs and career/technical education.

• 14.5%, or $6,214,899, for public charter schools.

• 8%, or $3,428,910, for non-bargaining employees and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

• 6%, or $2,571,683, for school administrators and supervisory, administrative, managerial and professional (SAMP) staff.

• 5%, or $2,143,069, for paraprofessionals.

If voters pass the renewal, extending the referendum to June 30, 2025, the school district plans to add visual and performing arts to the breakdown.

In a recent interview, Superintendent Cynthia Saunders said the arts would fall under the category for STEM programs and career education.

If the renewal fails, Saunders said, school employees and student programs throughout the school district will lose millions of dollars.

That money was not readily available in the district’s general budget, and Manatee would lose its competitive edge over Sarasota and Pinellas counties, which have enjoyed similar referendums for more than a decade, she continued.

The Manatee County School District reported that teachers would suffer a pay cut of about $5,000 each, while bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other employees would also see “a substantial pay cut” if the referendum fails.

“That would be a devastating blow to this community,” Saunders said. “Especially after our teachers, our educators, our nurses and our bus drivers stepped up in the two years of covid and ensured our students were receiving the best education possible. I think it would really be a blow to them feeling appreciated and valued.”

Did the referendum work?

It’s hard to say, according to the Citizens’ Financial Oversight Committee, a group of volunteers who were appointed by the School Board and tasked with overseeing the referendum money.

The latest report, dated June 15, 2021, concluded that Manatee County schools properly spent the tax revenue from their 1-mill referendum.

The report was less decisive on whether that money, along with the higher employee salaries, has improved school programs and hiring efforts. The group found that:

• Retention, meaning the ability to keep existing employees, has increased from 87% to 95%, according to data the school district provided to the committee. The data compared 2019-20 with 2020-21, and though it was hopeful, the committee reported that “no conclusion can yet be drawn” without more information.
• Student performance was also on the rise. The district was nearing an A rating, its state ranking jumped from 33 to 28 in 2019, and school grades have largely improved since 2015. But that progress started before the referendum and it was unclear what level the referendum played on Manatee’s continued success.
• STEM and technical education programs have improved, but the committee members were still analyzing data before they reached a conclusion about the programs’ success.

“No preliminary conclusions can be drawn at this time regarding the success of the Resolution in accomplishing its goals,” the Citizens’ Financial Oversight Committee reported. “This part of the CFOC’s work remains very much work in progress.”

In response, the superintendent agreed that it was hard, if not impossible, to measure exactly how much the referendum played a part in recent improvements.

But there was no doubt, she said, that higher salaries and longer classes were helping to retain staff and better educate students.

According to the school district, new teachers in Manatee County received an annual salary of $51,640 last year, outdoing surrounding school districts, while students received 30 minutes of extra learning each day — the equivalent of 18 school days a year.

“I can tell you for a fact that if we reduce the amount of learning time and we lower compensation rates, it will have a direct negative impact,” Saunders said.

Support and opposition

The Republican Party of Manatee County paid for signs that made an appearance at the Sep. 28 School Board meeting. The signs read, “First you mask us, then you tax us. Vote NO to more school taxes.”

And many guests at the meeting wore red shirts with another message on the back: “We the people of Manatee demand the budget pays TEACHERS FIRST. Vote NO on millage tax Nov. 2. It’s a SCAM!”

Among them was Beth Vinson, who described herself as a new homeowner and taxpayer in Manatee County

“I find it appalling that you are forcing our teachers to campaign for their salaries while all of your salaries are covered in the general operating fund and are not in jeopardy,” she said, addressing the School Board.

In her own public comment, Cecile Moseley said the school district should use its billion-dollar budget to pay teachers, bus drivers and other employees a competitive wage.

She was among several people who cited the district’s large budget to refute the need for a special tax.

“Please stop using them as pawns in your pathetic game of over-reach and mismanagement,” she said.

In response, board member Foreman said that many people compared school finances to their own household finances, creating a false perception of Manatee’s billion-dollar pot of money.

People have a certain amount of money in the bank and can spend that money however they choose. But a school district has far less freedom when it comes to state funding and other public dollars, Foreman said.

The budget is broken into several pots of money for construction projects, school lunches, federal programs, medical benefits and other needs. The money in each pot is restricted to a certain use, meaning the district can’t do whatever it wants with the budget.

And the money in Manatee’s operating budget — which covers salaries, school supplies, utilities and other needs — was not enough to fully pay for competitive salaries, Foreman said.

The League of Women Voters, one of several Manatee County organizations to back the referendum, said in a local email to its membership that district resources “cannot begin to provide enough funding” for the extra learning time, higher salaries and improved programs.

The email goes on to say that residents should pass the referendum and hold the school district accountable for the money it receives.

“LWVMC recommends that, in the future, there is greater transparency about district spending, openness to suggestions and recommendations from the Financial Oversight Committee, and support for a thorough review of the current budget to assure the community that their tax dollars are being spent wisely.”

Important dates and times

Election day: The special election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 2. Polling locations open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

Polling locations: To find your polling location, visit votemanatee.com, navigate to the “Election Information” tab and click on “Precinct Finder.” Once there, you can either type in your address or click “All Precincts in Manatee County.”

Voting by mail: The deadline to request a mail-in ballot was Oct. 23, and the ballot must reach the elections office by 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Elections supervisor: Contact the Supervisor of Elections Office at 941-741-3823 or info@votemanatee.gov.

This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 6:00 AM.