School officials hope for tax passage

By Staff
Nathan Strickland
County school officials are making “worse case scenario” plans in case county voters decide not to keep a one-cent sales tax that was implemented in January.
Voters will decide in June whether or not to keep the tax in place or to remove it completely. The one-cent tax is estimated to bring in about $2 million annually. The county school system receives 58 percent of that money while the remaining 42 percent is distributed to the Russellville city schools system.
Officials said that each county school has made as many cut backs as possible and hope to stay afloat once the tax vote surfaces and the legislation looks over proration costs in the schools’ budget.
Franklin County Schools superintendent Gary Williams encourages people to help push for the tax to help his system.
Williams said schools are already “bare-boned” and don’t have an overload of personnel.
Williams explained that even if the tax were to pass in June it would still not be enough to feel comfortable. He said the tax will help tremendously, but if the legislature doesn’t give schools a better budget to work with then it would take a three-cent tax increase for the county system to break even.
Williams said plans have been discussed about what to do if the worst is to come.
He admits the state has even made some suggestions on what to do as far as cuts are concerned, but hopes funds will come available before any drastic decisions are made. The legislature has not passed the budget for the next school year as of yet. The Franklin County one-cent tax referendum will be on the upcoming ballot this June.