With revenue shortfall, Beaufort schools seek more tax dollars (update: money gone, money found)

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Update June 29: It's been a very mixed bag for the Beaufort Count School District.

On Monday the Beaufort County Council gave a final no to the district's plan of a 1.8% tax adjustment and the district will have to spend from its reserves to cover a some $2 million budget shortfall.

Meanwhile, the state budget has been unfolding and Legislators planned to give a healthy portion of it to schools and schools in counties like Beaufort where taxpayers doll far more dollars to the state than they get back.

Gov. Nikki Haley has partly agreed with that sentiment, vetoing a $20 million kick start fund, but she approved of a pair of other measures that will give Beaufort County schools $650,000 in aid and a one-time infusion of $1.3 million thanks to increased state tax coffers. 

But the state budget isn't a done deal yet as the Legislature will likely override some of Haley's vetoes starting on July 6.

Updated June 24: Thursday brought about more arguing between the Beaufort County School District and the County Council regarding the New River TIF and potential accounting errors. 

More arguing? You're shocked, we know.

Head on over to The Island Packet for coverage of the latest.

Also worth noting is that the school district was hesitant to enter into this TIF in the first place. Maybe it was on to something.

First reporting June 22: You know the background: The Beaufort County Board of Education is struggling to find a way to get an extra $1.8 million in the door to compensate for rising expenses.

And thus far, the school leaders have had no love getting a tax increase approved by Beaufort County Council, so instead attention has turned towards recouping a fraction of some $9 million in county collections that, school leaders say, were supposed to have come to the schools.

But rather than drain that money from the county, the idea, it seems, is to let bygones be bygones and ask the county for a 1.8% tax increase "correction."

I'll point you over to a report at The Island Packet to read about the latest chapter.

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