Date: 01-08-2017
Pike school board facing potential $750K reduction in unmined coal taxes
SCHOOLS, COUNTIES LOSE BIG
An email exchange and conference call the leaders of the Pike County School District have had with the state’s Office of Finance and Operations revealed the possibility of a much steeper-than-anticipated drop in unmined coal and mineral returns.
An email from Associate Commissioner Robin Fields Kinney with the Office of Finance and Operations in December alerted the Pike County Schools to a potential decline of $745,000 in those taxes for this fiscal year.
“These revenues, statewide, are projected to decline this year, which will have a significant revenue impact on several coal-producing counties,” Kinney said in an email shared with the News-Express. “It is projected that the Pike County School District will see a decline of $745,000 in the taxes in this fiscal year. The amount may fluctuate from this total …”
That fluctuation fluidity would come to an end on Feb. 1, the deadline for which companies can protest their tax bills.
Pike County Schools Superintendent Reed Adkins said Thursday night that the school district knew, and was prepared for a decline in the revenue, but “we didn’t see three-quarters of a million dollars coming.”
The budget for the fiscal year of 2016 for the school district showed Pike County received nearly $2.4 million in those taxes for the fiscal year of 2015.
According to Pike County Schools Director of Finance Nancy Ratliff, the collection in fiscal year 2016 was only $1.1 million.
“However, we collected an additional $433,894.46 in the current year that was from the 2016 collection,” said Ratliff. “This means that a total of $1,578,148.52 was collected for the 2016 collection. This was a reduction of about $795,000 from previous years.”
According to Ratliff, the district had budgeted a reduction of close to $800,000, but were unable to plan for this cut.
“Fiscal year 2017’s $2 million budget was the rounded amount collected from the 2016 collection in addition to the $433,894.46 that was posted in this year from the 2016 tax collection,” said Ratliff. “This means the district planned for the $795,000 reduction as seen in fiscal year 2017. We did not; however, plan for this new additional cut of $745,000.”
According to the email from the state department, schools could not have planned for this cut.
“We are very concerned for the districts that will see reduced revenue from the unmined coal assessments as we know budgets and financial commitments were made assuming a certain income flow from this revenue source,” Kinney’s email to the district said.
–By Chase Ellis
Appalachian News-Express
