Board of Education Approves Tax Hike

Forsyth County School Board members listened intently Thursday as one speaker after another called on the board not to raise taxes during one of the worst recessions in decades.

Six of the seven speakers who addressed the school board urged board members to look for deeper cuts in the budget. Only former teacher Dennis Whittle said he supported a tax increase.

After the public forum portion of the meeting ended, Vice Chairwoman Darla Light said, "I feel like we've made cuts everywhere we can without sacrificing the kids education and I'm not willing to do that."

The board then voted to raise the bond millage rate by 1 mil to 2.418 mils and the maintenance and operations (M&O) rate to 16.3 from 15.395 where it has been the last three years.

The vote to raise the bond rate was unanimous. Only board member Kristin Morrissey argued for a smaller increase in the M&O rate.

Light conducted the first half of the meeting as Chairman Tom Cleveland was 45 minutes late in arriving. But at least one speaker, Brad Wilkins, Vice Chairman of the Forsyth County Republican Party, was not allowed to address the board when he arrived one minute past the deadline for signing up to speak.

"I'm disappointed that I didn't get to speak," Wilkins said after the meeting. "I had some ideas to share with the board that I think were good ideas. I didn't agree with this tax increase and I still don't. I was delayed in leaving the Board of Commissioners meeting because of the rain and was no more than a minute late. I should have been allowed to speak."

Among those who did speak out against the increase were Forsyth County Tea Party Founder Steve Voshall and Forsyth County Democratic Party Chairwoman Sharon Gunter.

Gunter reminded the board of the ongoing recession and added that the end is nowhere in sight.