With the Oconee County tax assessor’s office anticipating a decrease in property value assessments in the upcoming months, the county’s tax digest could shrink, presenting additional challenges to the Oconee County School System. 

Close to 85 percent of the county’s properties will be reassessed this spring, according to tax assessor Allen Skinner, who predicts that most values will decrease or remain the same. 

“Because of House Bill 233, the only thing that can go up is if something was changed the previous year or we discover something that we didn’t have on the record,” said Skinner.

Commission chairman Melvin Davis expects a two percent decrease in the county’s tax base going into Fiscal Year 2011, although the actual numbers will not come in for several months.

What this means for the school system is “fewer dollars coming in locally,” according to schools superintendent John Jackson.

“We haven’t received a solid dollar figure in the digest so right now we’re not sure, but we heard it could be as high as (a) five percent (reduction),” said Jackson. “We’re going to have to handle it through cuts.”

Cuts could include personnel reductions, he said, or operation costs such as supplies and utilities used by the school system. 

In mid-January, Governor Sonny Perdue recommended three furlough days for all school systems for the second half of the academic year. The three furlough days were also recommended to systems during the first half of this academic year, but Oconee County opted not to implement them.

“It is up to the school systems whether they implement the three (furlough) days or they absorb the reduction in state funds,” said Jackson. “We knew it was coming and we absorbed that reduction.”

In order to avoid last year’s furlough days, the school system looked at reducing supply and energy usage where possible, but the majority of savings came from personnel, which makes up 80 percent of the school system’s operating expenses.

Positions vacated by employees either retiring or moving out of the area were filled from within the system. 

In addition to the cost of three furlough days, which assistant superintendent for financial operations Randy Morrison estimated at $390,685, the school system received a three percent budget cut, the combination totaling more than $1 million.

The school system began the last school year with $58.3 million and ended with a reduced budget of $57.5 million. The system’s budget for the current academic year is $56.3 million. 

While the Georgia General Assembly has not yet met to approve or reject the recommendation for additional furlough days, Jackson said he has no reason to believe the recommendation will not be upheld.  

“We always reserve the right to implement or recommend to the board to implement the three (furlough) days that the governor recommended,” said Jackson. “But unless we get a huge surprise, we’re going to try our best to absorb those three furlough days.”

Anna Dolianitis is a reporter for The Oconee Leader. She can be reached at 706-310-1104 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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