BOE lowers millage rate
By JARED PUTNAM

The Union County Board of Education has made the decision to lower the millage rate to 8.95, down from the 9.22 rate that was tentatively advertised. The move is expected to cut approximately $328,000 from the proposed budget of $4,027,281.

Union County School Superintendent Tommy Stephens said he went back to examine what areas might have been projected a little higher than were necessary.

“A budget always has a lot of projections,” Stephens said. “You look at what you spent last year and look to see [what factors are going to impact it] this year. There are always things that happen during the school year, for instance, if a teacher resigns and we are not able to replace them for a while. Basically I’ve just been

going over the budget trying to find some places where we can get it down some.”

Stephens explained that another factor this year was decreasing fuel costs. “Fortunately fuel is down some so we have been able to get, at least initially, some savings on energy.” He added that he has also learned that the school will receive some funds from interest and penalties on back taxes, further increasing revenues.

Stephens said that in the future he hopes to make use of some of the suggestions that came out of the tax meetings held during the past two weeks. “It’s a difficult process to go through, but it’s a valuable process,” Stephens said. “There were some suggestions that I think we’ll definitely put to use. We don’t discount anything. We’re going to look at all avenues to try to cut down on the future budget in future years.”

Still, Stephens said that the focus will remain where it has always been, on trying to run a tight ship. “Our goal always has been to try to run as streamlined as we possibly can,” Stephens said. “I don’t think we’ve ever been extravagant and we tend to be very conservative here. We are going to try hard to maintain that and maybe even go a little further with it.”