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Escambia School Board Votes To Increase Property Taxes As Enrollment Declines
August 3, 2025
The Escambia County School Board has voted to approve a tax increase. The 1.5 mill increase is expected to net around $52 million for the district.
The total proposed millage rate is 4.644 mills, which is 15.4% greater than the rollback rate that would generate the same funding as last fiscal year.
The increase passed 4-1, with District 1 member Kevin Adams casting the lone dissenting vote. “I told my constituents, if you support the half-cent sales tax, I will never raise your property taxes.”
Other board members say the increase was necessary due to declining enrollment and a reduction in state funding.
“We cannot put that burden onto the taxpayer,” Adams said, noting that he has never voted for a tax increase during his tenure and he would stick to a campaign promise.
The district says enrollment is down by about 4,200 students over the past five years, with much of that drop due to school vouchers. A decreased enrollment means a decrease in state funding based on the student count.
“We’ve been cutting back for years,” David Williams, District 3 School Board member, said. “We’ve been making do with less for years, and I think the public needs to understand this is nothing new to us. This is a means of last resort. We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t have to… we have been cutting and cutting and cutting.”
“We’ve got to get back on track to resize this district,” Adams said.
“It’s a tough spot that we are in here,” District 5 member Tom Harrell said. “This is something that has happened over a period of time, and we probably could have weathered this storm had we not had such a drastic reduction in funds for this year.”
Harrell, who describes himself as a strong conservative, said he decided a week ago to vote against the increase. “But now it’s my belief that we are in a critical position here.”
“I did it for the children,” Harrell added to explain his support of the increase. “I did it for the district. I did it because it was the right thing to do at this time and this place.”
Comments
75 Responses to “Escambia School Board Votes To Increase Property Taxes As Enrollment Declines”
Ok. Y’all know I have to comment. Been watching all this. I think I’ve been saying Whose getting the Lottery money. Hmmm. For years now. Everytime property taxes and children’s finds raise things. I can see donating to Firemen’s accounts that needs to be a concern. Audit away to see who what where the money’s at. Dad use to say and he’d be tickled. Follow the money. Always follow the money trail. Y’all be safe out there.
Florida DODGE should investigate them asap . Also vote them all out .
Sell that building on Pace Boulevard ( return proceeds to property tax payers ) and put these administrators in trailers in some field somewhere . Shake up these elected failures !
They need to file a class action lawsuit against the school board members for 1st degree robbery! This is a disgrace! The property owners need to get a backbone and stand up to them, make it make sense, if you have less students but need more money – sounds like a money pit scam to me! Reduce their salaries by half for starters, and dont have amenisa at election time – VOTE THEM OUT! If they are not doing right by their constiutents, show them the door!
Taxation without representation. We fought a war over this. How and why is “THE SCHOOL BOARD’ allowed to raise our taxes without ANY VOTE from US and/or our ‘elected Representatives’ ?!! This unjust ‘TAX’ hits only ‘Homeowners’…..with an obvious large percentage NOT having CHILDREN IN SCHOOL. Renters get away without paying because they have no PROPERTY TAX !
And very glaring question: what happened to the FLORIDA LOTTERY funding our schools ??!!!
Give me your money and another shovel so I can keep digging this hole . Just pay me and shut up . Going to a South Florida. Beach resort !
Education is important, but money is importanter.
Tom Harrell (~30 years in the Escambia school district) was just re-elected as a “conservative”. 3 good candidates ran against him and warned us. They will always put this on the property owner because they are the ones who are reliable and cant get out of it. Escambia residents need to get their act together and stop voting for old establishment GOP. This is shameful on the voters who put them there.
Some of these comments are amazing. The lack of education on how systems work. You voted for this. It was very clear that if you voted for Republicans then you voted to have your property tax increased, to have your schools become defunded (to a degree), to give your money to large corporates and the wealthy. They literally told you that if you pushed for the voucher scam enrollments would come down, and public schools would need to close or raise taxes for the shortfall. they told you over and over. You listened to your Conservative media and failed to bust out a calculator to fact check or do even a simple google search to see the impact. If you voted Republican then you voted to not have a working public school system. Like seriously. Read the playbook and agenda from your own party before voting for them. They want to reduce educational opportunities to keep you poor, stupid, and exctract everything they can from you enrich the top 1%. Love you are getting to the Find out Phase though.
As a taxpaying senior citizen on a strict budget, I am requested a trusted third party take a comprehensive look at the Escambia County School budget and make the results public. When viewing the budget as an everyday citizen, you can’t really follow the money. It appeared to me, they are very top heavy. If the ESC have lost so many students, what positions have been eliminated?
Forgot to mention the Charter Schools. How many have been created and students transferred? When Warrington Middle became Warrington Prep, there went a few hundred students no longer counted.. Instead of local authority correcting the problem school they decided to make a charter school. When the school closes and they are placed back into public school, there goes our tax base again. But currently taxpayers still pay for busing those students.
4200 students in past 5 years, approx 840 per year. Lord knows the money does not go to teachers. My niece has been teaching elementary for 25 years now. She receives $100 each year for ex:school copier use,paper, toner-separate charge.
As for as removing students for voucher/virtual school, go for it. Grandson was in private school til 4th grade. Do to finances he transferred to Pine Meadow. Nothing against special needs students being placed in regular classrooms. But when the student disrupts the teacher and classmates, the teacher told everyone else to put on headphones to block out noise and do classwork on computer. He transferred to virtual school in 7th grade and loved it. Tried Tate for 9th and beginning of 10th but went back to virtual. From being bullied, running across campus between classes, bus always late so he would be late to 1st period, he decided virtual was better advantage. He would finish 2 weeks before required end of school year, with A’s. His cousin, same age, was in high school, 3 girls disturbed class talking each day. Cousin brought to teachers attention, COUSIN was moved to library to do class online. The only disadvantage grandson had was foreign language. With it not being a live class, he did not have feed back immediately when trying to speak or ask questions.
Perhaps a news agency will research the actual student count at beginning and end of each year/for each school for past 6 years.Check to see how many “Directors” and Assistant “Directors” school system had each year. And of course the Property Appraiser tax roll for number of increase of taxable property value and new construction each year. Now that would be interesting.
Too many goverment costs aren’t shared equally. It’s seems easier to push more and more onto property owners. Why aren’t some of these costs coverable by some other means that property owners. I have no children and am not favorable of paying for other people’s children’s needs …. at least not to the extent that I pay more for schools, libraries, parks and other things I don’t use. This is a farce when property owers were just made hopeful that our taxes might go down or go away. Use sales taxes that are guaranteed to be a more evenly distributed responsibility for these costs.
Well, @George,
You should be as upset as any other.
Landlord’s property tax goes up, he passes that on; you don’t expect him to just absorb it, do you?
Same with any other business properties. You cant’t expect the owner to just absorb it. Farms will need more money to operate, too, as an example.
Homeowners get hit worst, because they have to pay increased taxes and pay increased costs to businesses that are passing to cost along. Homes don’t, as a rule, generate income. At least rental properties and other businesses can pass the cost along.
What about seniors or other retirees on fixed incomes?
What happens when people can’t pay those taxes? The county is only too happy to seize and sell; doesn’t matter if there’s a mortgage or not.
The school board isn’t reading the room.
Cut spending. The rest of us do when our budget is pressed.
I have always said it’s tax sat ion without representation when you don’t have child in school but you still have to pay taxes its hard enough but even harder when you live on a fixed income the school taxes are higher than the property taxes and I don’t believe that you should have to keep paying taxes on the same product that you had already paid taxes on when you bought it it just wrong at some point its got to stop The way it is now you never own your home your just leasing it from the government and if you don’t pay the taxes they will evict you and take your home for pennies on the dollar for what it’s worth and that my friend is nothing but wrong something has to change
How and when did the county school board become a taxing authority?
SW, It is not just the property owner funding “stuff”, when property. taxes go up my rent goes up to cover my landlord’s increase.,
The superintendent should be elected not appointed. All board members and superintendent should have to declare party affiliation. We have a board of tax and spend democrats. Less students means you spend less money, when student population goes up they say that is a reason to raise taxes. If free meals is included, then stop the free meals. Not to mention they expect parents to provide everything from toilet paper to pencils. Enough is enough. They should stay within a budget based on what money they have. People need to wake up next election.
Sounds like we need “DOGE” at the school board.
I wonder how many defending the Board will actually be paying the taxes?
Why is it always on property owners to fund stuff?
@George on August3
Kids needs sports, they play video games and sees sport figures making $millions and they think they will to and why study!
How about no expensive out of town conferences for school administration personnel . Instead fire 20% of the administration . Failures running our school system . Is failure fossil Fesko still fleecing the taxpayer ? The other three can do the right thing for the children and resign !
We need recall elections to fire these failures that got elected .
Lots and lots of uninvolved parents making uninformed comments about what they assume is happening in our public schools. You have every right to move the kids out of the system, but responsibly looking at the reality of where our tax dollars are spent, and why it was necessary to add a tax, would be a reasonable and logical thing to do before commenting. This information is available to the public.
The public school system is a joke and has been for decades. The leadership at the community, city, county, state, and federal levels prove that. Raising taxes really worked for California and New York, didn’t it. Name one instance where raising taxes improved anything for the working family that actually pays them.
I pulled both of my kids out of this joke of a system and it is the best thing we could have done. I pay a few grand a year to do that and make sure my kids are educated and not indoctrinated. Now they are going to tax me for running me off.
I blame all you dummies that voted in and then voted to keep the penny tax. You started this ball rolling. I’m probably one of the few to comment that ACTUALLY PAYS TAXES. If you get a refund or collect any form of subsidy you should not have a right to vote because you are a leech sucking off the lifeblood that sustains you.
When it comes to fight or flight, the government shouldn’t back the flightless into a corner. That is what they are doing. Dems are the problem. RINOs are the problem. Neither knows what is good for you nor would they want it if they did. Never forget how they lied to you for years during the covid hoax.
I would like to respond to every comment here, but I can’t do that effectively. From someone on the inside, let me simply say that it is clear that only one or two people commenting here have an understanding of where their tax money goes or how schools are funded. Your tax is not the only money used to fund schools. The funds from the state (matching if you care to say) were drastically reduced this year. Schools don’t have last year’s budget to “stay inside”. So while several here state “trim your budget to fit”, we can’t. See, schools have been trimming for several years and making do without asking for money from taxpayers. Teachers are not able to change the thermostat in any room (and haven’t been able to in years). We don’t have a driver’s ed teacher or car, an art teacher, a soccer team, or a pool. This year, what little bit of ledge we had is now gone. Schools are doing it with fewer teachers this year. On Monday, parents will call to complain about their child’s teacher or that their student didn’t get all the electives they wanted; they will be told there is no other option. They won’t believe that is the truth, though it is. They will go to social media to badmouth the school’s reputation. Then they will threaten to pull their student out. And they may do that. See, the private program they choose doesn’t have to follow many of the rules that public schools do. They can offer credit for many things that are not approved by the state. Some don’t employ certified teachers. They also don’t offer ROTC or band. The public school must allow them to attend the program that they offer after school. When parents find out that they have to actually manage their own students’ work (who needed a teacher because they are actually struggling) they often bring students back -after the mandatory Student counts that create the funding from the state. The school will be teaching that student all year long, even though they weren’t fully funded for them.
This is not a simple subject. The funding formulas are incredibly complex. If you are concerned, get involved. We are always looking for members of the community for our state-required teams who manage our use of funds. All the money and funding are documented in the public record. If you have concerns about how it is spent, please go see where it went.
Un elect or impeach the 4 board members.
4200 less students should equal 150 less teachers
4200 less students should equal 150 less class rooms
4200 less students should equal 8+- less schools
4200 less students should mean at least 30 less busses
It would not take much looking to find other areas that need to be cut or not funded.
So, Mr. Harrell, would you please explain to us again why you need to raise taxes 15.4%
parents are tired of schools NOT teaching students basic skills; teachers are so consumed by DEI and gender identity and which pro nouns to use that they FAILED to do their job. I have seen teenagers graduate that can’t spell even a simple 3 letter word or do math at all. I witnessed a 14 year old that could not identify a penny or a nickel. if I was younger and had kids I would NOT want them anywhere near the teachers or schools. worthless.
and for some reason you think having more money will solve the problem. you have NO CLUE.
If we quit sp ending so much money on sports and new sports stadiums and all the travel and everything else that is associated with sports, maybe just maybe we wouldn’t need so much money. We should concentrate on education but that is usually the last thong in school that anybody cares about you know, reading, writing and arithmetic some of the basics.will stop now.
How is this fair, I have no children but my property taxes go up to cover this? Y’all need to figure another option.
It’s so very interesting to me that Escambia county is building a new school but doesn’t have enough students attending schools. This is becoming a never ending contradictory cycle in not just our school district but almost everything in our district. There is always a pitiful excuse as to why it takes months to years before roads are completed in construction but hey let’s build a new school although we have low attendance. Meanwhile it only takes two months to have 54th Dollar General built. Let’s put in a Wa Wa immediately although the Interstate is going through a massive upgrade. Makes so much sense. The logic is almost as useful as a bump on a pickle.
The only way I see this to be avoidable is to go to a 4-day week, which I don’t believe the community is ready. The problem with public education is not at school or local levels, but restrictions, cuts, and mandates place by overreaching state governments. While being stripped of funds, the school district is not immune from inflation (costs of materials and technology), nor is the district keeping up with the cost of living for the employees). They need more funds or less cuts of the funds to make it work.
The data will show you that the majority of students taken of our public schools return while the money does not immediately follow, leaving the county in a deficit for that year. The offset.. more counties are going to a K-8 model. Meaning less schools and less teachers. But more demand on an underpaid and overstressed teacher (paid worst in the panhandle, while the state is last in the country). A reduction of the work week means savings across the district from every school from energy (utilities and fuel for buses.
). Play our games on Thursday and shut the schools down on Friday. Or … the only other narrative that they can control. Raise the millage.
So to those who grab the political hat…. Offer a solution or at very least, go to a school board meeting and learn before you bash/speak. But make sure you bring your representative with you. The results may be shocking.
We are going to do less and charge you more . We that thinking why would anybody abandon ship .
Schools in Escambia County have failed our students. The introduction of computers instead of text books has made it harder for some kids to learn. Keeping teachers in classrooms because kids are disruptive, distracting and disrespectful. On the other hand some teachers that just don’t care, teachers that are there to be friends to the students or teachers there for their own agenda. Not at all saying there are not great teachers and students among them. Kids today definitely have a fear of school. Discipline seems almost non existent. No wonder homeschool and private schools are growing. Is this BOOM of gawd awful subdivision and other people who are buying up our forested area to build new homes the real reason for the increase in property taxes? Because it seems our population is growing faster than our infrastructure. We cannot support our growth so why is it a good reason for wanting more money when they say there will be less children. Not many want to be teachers or school bus drivers or even janitors anymore. It feels to me like a bandaid on a gaping wound to ask for more money. Fix what you have.
When the public school system takes directions from Washington DC and they are trying to decide what level of pornography do we need in the first grade library and free for all in the girls bathroom is controversial it is hard to understand why enrollment is down in our failed public school system . Get Washington DC out of our local school system ; they are on life support .
Maybe charge parents for scheduled bus rides,regardless if they ride the bus or not.
Adjust all thermostats at 76 degrees when its hot(including the principle and teachers lounges.
70 during cold weather. Thermostats alone could save $Thousand$ a month per school!
Maybe think about yeRar round school !!!!
Close Bratt Elementary. Merge into Ernest Ward, which becomes a K-7 school.
Northview becomes an 8-12 school.
Close OJ Semmes Elementary. Merge to NB Cook Elementary.
The OJ Semmes property is worth a fortune. Sell the property to a developer for millions.
That’s two closed schools, more efficient use of space in three other schools, and a real estate bonanza generated.
If you have 4,200 fewer students, you need 4,200 fewer seats.
Sounds to me like the number of public schools needs to come down.
K-6 and 7-12 schools might work in some areas. Consolidating some elementary schools, too.
Remember, it’s not just teacher and administrative salaries. Utility bills, maintenance, transportation, additional extracurricular activities. Each school generates more expense.
The School Board is choosing to raise taxes over making moves to close or merge schools. As one might imagine, no one will want THEIR school closed, but closing that one over there will be just fine.
This is totally ridiculous. How does four board members vote and pass an increase on homeowner’s property taxes?? This should be voted on by the people, not four board members! I will definitely remember this when their election time comes up!
Sounds like they need to start closing and consolidating schools. With fewer students you need fewer schools.
They also might consider why people are fleeing the public school system.
like everything else, lets tax us to death.. the school board shouldn’t be allowed to do this without a vote by the citizens.. we have grown children… I’m tired of my house taxes consistently going up.. as senior citizens, where are we to get the funds to afford this… we live on a limited budget and all these increases are nuts… groceries are also unreal.. then lets add the evil power company here that keeps raising rates too.. heaven forbid this has to stop
Can’t wait to vote again! Tom Harrell, Your days are numbered! YOU WILL BE VOTED OUT!
Tom Harrell, what a disappointment!
1) Any parcels of land less than 15-20 acres needs to be sold and put back on the tax roles. 2) superintendent and board pay is set by the legislature–some states only pay for board expenses 3) Free lunches are pass thru dollars from the feds 4) consider privatizing food service, transportation, subs, etc. if not already. Just a few cost saving ideas, along with combining District staff assignments.
The decrease in enrollment is not just because of the vouchers it is because of the Escambia County School boards INCOMPETENCY and lack of patriotism too. I pulled my children out around the COVID SCAM demic, perfect time to do it. I had already put my oldest in Virtual school but apparently he wasn’t able to get his diploma after they told the kids that a certain type of testing was waved because of the scamdemic only to change their minds right before these kids were supposed to graduate. That was just one example and that wasn’t really a good one. I have had so many issues with West Pensacola elementary and my last straw was when the Principal couldn’t tell me the School districts policy on the Pledge of Allegiance which I have known the policy since I was in Escambia county schools. My child’s teacher would clean her desk and do other things when she should be either reciting the pledge and participating or standing there silent out of respect for others. I personally watched this take place during virtual COVID school sessions. I was present everyday during these school sessions and saw first hand how Incompetent many of our teachers were. I had to correct the teacher many times on English and math lessons. Really embarrassing. I pulled my son out of school and we are currently Unschooling. It’s amazing how much children learn on their own when they are not forced to learn things that they are not interested in. When they realize on their own why it’s important to know math, how to read and spell they pay more attention and want to learn different things. I don’t think anything should be forced on anyone including shots which cause vaccine induced deaths, school which the only real reason for it is to Control and brainwash our kids into learning false history and lies. If this country is supposed to be FREE then all of this should be a choice. I could go on and on but don’t have the space. It doesn’t make sense to tax property owners more money for a school board that is continuously failing our children.
I didn’t know that the School Board has the power to increase property taxes. Thought it had to be voted on by the County Commissioners. That’s giving the Fox a key to the henhouse. Academics has never enough money. They know they can’t fix their shortcomings educating students by throwing money at it, but try to convince the public more money is the magic key
Cuts…. deep cuts are required.
These should solely be to the administrative and bureaucratic layers at the district level. It’s a simple solution but those in leadership positions refuse to look in the mirror.
Tom Harrell is a disgraceful disappointment. Of course he voted to raise taxes instead of cut waste. He’s as two-faced liberal as they come.
Three big tickets would help. 1. Get rid of free lunches. Biggest waste of money. Kids only want the dessert. They throw the rest away. Cafeteria workers don’t care because free lunch is a guaranteed job and pension.
2. Enforce discipline. Takes care of distraction and stops enabling kids.
3. Stop promoting kids that didn’t pass.
First one is immediate savings.
The second two are starters that will take at least four years to kick in.
The 2025 version of Robin Hood & his Merry Band of Misfits! These 5 “characters” are a sham. They are incompetent and insulting… from banning books to mismanaging money, to placing favorites in sought after positions. Now they want to blame the State and vouchers for their ineptitude to properly run a school district within budget. If the state of the ECPS wasn’t so poor, maybe parents wouldn’t turn to other avenues to provide the best education for their children. Best actor, and best supporting role in this saga go to Adams and Fetsco, but every one of them deserve an Oscar! Don’t be fooled, vote these actors out.
Open the books! How much have they collected in school taxes from the new builds and the increased value of older properties. In addition we are funding the Children’s trust fund. We need transparency.
yeah. This makes no sense. 4200 few students and you need MORE money. Only the government can justify this. The we need more money because we have fewer students here makes no sense. Parents are pulling them out because of the lack of quality education they are getting. Worst in the state. Why on earth does the school board have the authority to raise property taxes in the first place. This needs to be stripped from their authority. I don’t have any kids in the district school system but I get hit every single year with that provision in my property taxes. Why am I paying to poorly educate someone else’s child? I shouldn’t have that on any bill I receive. We definitely need a DOGE clean up in the state and especially in escambia county. If we eliminated the waste we have here, I’ll bet they could find that extra money they THINK they need and the property tax increase could go away. We need to get the NO PROPERTY tax item on the ballot ASAP so they can’t continue to do this. Eliminate most positions at the Hall Center then close it for good. Move the few kept to actual school campuses. Saves payroll and electricity running that building. The building could be repurposed at a later date IF there was a justifiable need or sold (hey there’s more money there)
So sick of this. there is no leadership in the new millennium. One out of a group of five. That’s 20%. And that’s probably better than average. When money is low, you draw back and re-create your budget. You do what you have to do. But when you can just ask for more money, that doesn’t happen. Believe me, when my budget gets tight, if all I had to do was ask the boss for more money, that’s what I would do. I wouldn’t go through the hard work of re-organizing my budget and making things happen. Need to start hiring leaders. This definitely has to change come voting season. Obviously we have a bunch of non-leaders that need to be replaced by leaders. It’s gonna be a hard fine, but it’s possible.
This should be something the citizens vote on. Only 1 of the board members took his campaign promise into consideration. I live in district 1. Thank you Kevin Adams for being excellent representative of not only the children and parents but your constituents as well.
Mostly “low information voters” elect these board members… Probably some board member who doesn’t own property subject to taxation voted in affirmative.
This information needs to go straight to DeSantis
office so the Florida DOGE team can look into
Escambia county’s waste, fraud, and abuse.
If the county/ government wasn’t paying and promoting private schools and vouchers rather than providing resources to public schools property taxes wouldn’t be an issue.
Now private schools can utilize public schools for activities and services in public schools.
Watch and see! After the increase we will see them give raises to themselves.
A few on the Board are retired Teacher/Principal and this job is just a
sponge for extra income.
My BIG Question is? Where are all the students going? Housing has
certainly not decreased in Pensacola! Or, are Parents Homeschooling or
sending their kids to a private schools because of lack of teaching adequate
Education and Training in the Public Schools?
Vote them out!
A lot of home owners dont even have kids in school. How is this fair?
Wow Tom you let us down guess one term for you
The Federal Government is cutting education, the state government is cutting education, The county’s schools are in need of renovation even when funds have been cut. We as a county cannot simply say we want better, we want more from our kids, and then act as though that happens with a wave of a magic wand. These things do need funding. If you believe there is waste, then be active, go to meetings, demand the receipts, demand justifications. But do not simply yell into the void about the problem without seeing both sides of an issue.
Instead of raising taxes, fix your school system. Bring back discipline and hold students and parents accountable for their actions. No one wants to send their students to public schools, because they have no control over the children.
And here I thought we had voted out the 2 worst board members for 2 conservatives. Thank you Mr. Adams for having a spine to vote against this increase. How appropriate will it be if the Governor and or the President pass resolving property taxes. You still going to have to do with less. I know it’s only a dream because all beurocrats are the same. Campaign and say what you want to hear. Vote opposite.
The school board needs to stop waisting tax payer money.
There salerys should not be more than the teachers ..Start by
Cutting the boards pay!!
The whole point of the voucher was to let the money move with the student. If your school has a C rating or less, you likely will lose students to private schools, another performing school, or the parents leave the district for places like Santa Rosa County. The idea was to force schools to perform better to restrict the closer residing students back into your classrooms. At this rate, we will be taxed excessively to fund classes with zero students. How can you tax us to give it to D and F schools?and they wonder why trust has fallen in government institutions.
Stop property tax.
It’s criminal. It’s promotes homelessness.
Only in government does the rationale fly, we have less kids therefore we need more money. It’s almost like budget cuts should be made when there are less kids, rather than taxing more to maintain the same bloated budget.
So, instead of cutting costs, you’re going to tax landowners more?
Remember this, voters.
Ah, the old fallback strikes again. The school system is in trouble so punish the taxpayers.
No wonder this school system cannot produce students that can add 2+2. All the new construction that add to the tax rolls should produce a windfall in new taxes for this board. Saying that you have 4200 less students so you have to charge 15.4% more in taxes is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard. We will have to pay it,,,,,,,,,,at least until the next election.
Get it from the Kid’s First funds. It’s always FOR THE CHILDREN, or FOR THE KIDS.
When Florida voted for the lottery years ago, those funds were going to our schools. Now so much of that money goes to college students. Fix that. Florida needs a serious DOGE Team to gut the stupidity exhibited here.
TA X AND WASTE VOTE THWM OUT
Just shameful. Only one elected official had the backbone to say “NO” and try to find a way to live within last years budget.
Seems these elected officials have no problem spending other peoples money instead of realizing that sometimes you cant fulfill every “I want” the district may desire. Once they get this extra $52 million dollars, next year they are still going to “want that same $52 million and they will also have the need to add on another 3% — or more — to the budget. It never ends and seldom, if ever, do they roll back rates and take less money. Just shameful. Truly Shameful.