Opinion
By Jerry Novak, 8-1-24
Nassau County Taxpayers must demand transparency and honesty from their elected officials.
But:
We have not gotten this from our school district and school board elected officials.
The district, via the 1 mill increase ( a 44% increase ) referendum is taking approximately $70m from Nassau County taxpayers over 4 years under knowingly false pretenses.
A) The District’s taxpayer funded website clearly stated most of the additional funding would go to the teachers (see website below).
In fact. less than 35% went to the teachers – please reference Ms. Grooms’ email showing approximately only $5.7m of the $16.2m raised via the millage increase went to teachers AND instructional personnel. ( see Grooms’ email below )
No one voted for that.
B) The District’s taxpayer-funded marketing website displayed a graph showing the state millage rate declining implying the district would receive less state funding.
This is knowingly and deliberately misleading.
The Property Appraiser’s office met with School District officials including Ms. Burns months before the vote telling her and others this was misleading.( see website below )
Why was this misleading? Though the millage rate declined, due to an increase in property values, the district would be receiving an increase in state funding, not a decrease as the graph implies. The Appraiser’s office offered to provide a graph showing the state funding increase; the district declined to offer this to concerned citizens on the district’s taxpayer funded marketing website.
Voters were not provided state funding transparency by the District.
C) The Property Appraiser offered the District the ability to provide a link on its taxpayer funded marketing website so every citizen could click on that link and understand their individual tax increase
The District chose not to provide this.
D) The District was told by the Appraiser’s Office that the $13.7m they were initially requesting would be satisfied with a millage increase Materially below the 1 millage increase –
The District IGNORED this and pocketed the additional tax dollars taken from Nassau County Citizens.
E) The district’s taxpayer funded marketing website has a section that asks what will this millage increase cost?
There’s a simple answer- The 1 mill proposed increase represented a 44% increase in the millage rate.
However the District’s marketing material DOES NOT PROVIDE this simple answer. Why didn’t it?
The District even failed to answer its own question. Instead it provides some theoretical mathematical example on how to calculate millage leaving a reader with the impression this 1 mill increase would be a small $$ amount for a homeowner versus the truth which is a 1 millage increase would be a material increase in a homeowner’s property school taxes.
Editor’s note: the author supplied this response he received from board member Cindy Grooms:
FROM: CYNTHIA GROOMS [email protected]
DATE: SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 AT 1:56:37 PM EDT
TO: [email protected]
SUBJECT: RE: GM – NO ONE RESPONDED TO MY EMAILS NOR WHEN I SPOKE TO YOU AT THE LAST SCHOOL BOARD MEETING – SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES
ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS
- The District knew that a more accurate number would be available to them on June 1, 2022. SD chose to use the State’s ballpark number generated in Jan. 2022 and never updated It after they received the June number. The district received the information in June (summer) of 2022.
2. It was never going to be $13.7 million and the teachers are getting $5.7 million. They also never mentioned that Administrators would be getting money from the referendum and they’re getting close to $3 million.
Correct Information:
Projected Expenditures 1 mill
70% for Employee Compensation $11,358,569.00
12% for Safety $1,947,183.00
9% for Arts $1,460,388.00
9% for Athletics $1,460,388.00
Estimated Expenditures for Employee Compensation
Instructional Personnel (NTA unit – 941.5 employees) $5,736,305.00
Support Personnel (NESPA unit – 681.5 employees) $4,152,238.00
Other Support Personnel (83) $506,081.00
Administration (65) $396,017.00
Relevant links:
https://www.nassau.k12.fl.us/vote
Jerry Novack was CFO of 2 publicly traded companies and has very involved in a number of volunteer groups. He’s been visiting Amelia Island since 2008 and moved here in 2021
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
