DeKalb school funding cut stalls
Legislation that would have cut tax funding for DeKalb County schools by about $56 million a year hasn't moved forward in the Georgia General Assembly.
Rep. Tom Taylor, the sponsor of House Bill 969, said Wednesday he'll continue working in the future to reduce DeKalb school property tax revenue to the maximum allowed in most other county school systems in Georgia.
Georgia law sets a property tax limit of 20 mills on most school systems, but DeKalb has been allowed to go above that rate for more than 40 years because it previously operated a junior college in additional to elementary and high schools.
"If everyone else can operate at 20 mills or below, why can't DeKalb?" said Taylor, R-Dunwoody. "That's not the school system's money — it's the taxpayers' money."
The bill didn’t advance before last week’s deadline for legislation to pass either the House or Senate.
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
