Montgomery Public Schools to receive $33M in October thanks to increased ad valorem tax
On Tuesday afternoon, Montgomery Public Schools chief financial officer Arthur Watts presented the $549 million budget for fiscal year 2024 to the school board members. They unanimously approved it, but one source of incoming funds was missing from the general fund revenue: Montgomery County's increased property taxes.
In all, Watts said the school district expects to receive about $33 million from the tax this year, and that will be available to MPS come October.
These funds are the result of Montgomery County residents' 2020 vote to up their millage rate from the state mandated minimum of 10 mills up to 22 mills. 2023 is the first year in nearly three decades that Montgomery home and business owners are seeing an increase in their property taxes.
The influx of cash comes at an especially useful time for MPS, as the district's declining student population over the last seven years has resulted in a loss of overall funds, according to Watts.
"I want to again just say thank you all, to the entire community, for going out and supporting public education by voting 'yes' to the property tax increase," Watts said. "It is providing an opportunity for us to do some really, really good capital renovations and providing us an opportunity to put in place a number of educational opportunities, whether it be AP teachers or additional security, just all kinds of things we're doing in order to enhance education in Montgomery."
The school district already has dozens of board-approved construction projects in the works, including reroofing Vaughn Road Elementary, installing new HVACs in Goodwyn and Brewbaker, doing more work on the MPS Arboretum and updating various high school athletic field houses.
Montgomery's new property tax amount is still lower than many other Alabama school districts, but it increases MPS's flexibility in how it can spend. While state and federal funding come with strict stipulations, local funding from a county ad valorem tax is up to the discretion of the district.
For the sake of comparison, Watts brought up Birmingham City Schools and Huntsville City Schools. Both, he said, have similar demographics to MPS, but they have more local funding. Where about 34.8% of MPS funds come from local sources, Birmingham is at 45% and Huntsville is at 44%.
Watts said the ideal in his mind would be somewhere around 42% or higher.
"I think we've done an excellent job at increasing our ad valorem tax, but at 34.8%, we've still got work to do," Watts said. "That way we're not so dependent on the state."
Hadley Hitson covers children's health, education and welfare for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to the Advertiser.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Tax increase results in projected $33 million for MPS this year
