School board candidate commends board for approving lower tax rate
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, 2 p.m. — Bardstown City Schools board of education candidate Donna Molyneaux commended the city school board Tuesday night for approving a lower property tax revenue increase than it originally proposed.
School board candidate Donna Molyneaux with her campaign sign outside the city schools tax rate public hearing Monday evening.
In a 4-1 vote Tuesday, the board approved setting the 2016 tax rate to create a 3 percent revenue increase, rather than the 4 percent increase the board proposed.
“Apparently the attention raised by my protest at the public hearing on Monday night had an impact, especially on the two board members running for re-election,” she said through a press release.
She called the move “a start in the right direction,” though she acknowledged the new rate is still a substantial tax increase on city property owners.
At the board’s Aug. 2 meeting, the board approved the proposal to take the 4 percent revenue increase. State law allows districts to set a tax rate that creates 4 percent more revenue than the year before. The 4 percent revenue increase is not subject to recall.
Molyneaux questioned what changed between the Aug. 2 meeting and the board’s vote to accept a lower rate Tuesday.
“It appears that (the) board is operating under the rule of “get what we can when we can” rather than a clear, well thought-out analysis of their true needs,” she stated. She suggested that the board give more thought to approving the “compensating rate” — the rate that produces revenue equal to that produced the preceding year.
Molyneaux suggested that her protest outside Tuesday’s board meeting affected the board’s vote on the tax rate.
“As a taxpayer in the City of Bardstown ask yourself, ‘If there had not been a visible, vocal challenger for the School Board who was opposing the 4% increase, would the Board have suddenly changed their mind?’ ”
Molyneaux is one the three candidates seeking one of the two seats on the November ballot. She faces incumbents Franklin Hibbs III and Andy Stone.
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