Letter to the editor: Our children are worthy of taxpayers' investment in education
After reading the letter to the editor from JP Reilly on Feb. 20, 2024, titled, "Tax dollars funding upgrades to facilities at closed school," it reminds me of the adage, "If it don't come out in the wash, it will come out in the rinse." Mr. Reilly shared "his story." I will share "my story" since February is Black History Month.
In 2006, the Republican-controlled S.C. General Assembly passed S.C. Act 388. This law eliminated school operations property taxes in their entirety, for all owner-occupied residential property. The main reason for this law was to stop wealthy homeowners from being taxed out of their homes after tax reassessments. This law shifted the funding of school operations to business and rental properties.
Each year the S.C. Department of Revenue (DOR) determines the number of mills (money) each individual school district in S.C. is entitled to receive. Because Sumter School District (SSD) does not have fiscal autonomy, like 27 other school districts, it must submit its request to Sumter County Council (SCC) each fiscal year for the money it is entitled to by law. Sadly, four members of SCC (three Republicans and one Democrat) have resorted to the word "may" in the law to deny the SSD its annual millage request. Since 2016, the SCC have denied the SSD over $9 million in money it was entitled to under S.C. Act 388. The bottom line, "we the taxpayers" of Sumter County have financially benefited by not paying taxes to support public education in Sumter County.
Now, I know why there is this reluctance by three SSD trustees to support the football and track facility for R.E. Davis College Preparatory Academy. Like Mr. Reilly, they think the students are "subset" and not entitled to the same treatment students receive at Hillcrest and Alice Drive middle schools.
To the three SSD trustees and the four SCC members, Team Sumter needs you to be "team members," not a distraction. Education is the foundation of economic development in Sumter County.
To "we the taxpayers," our children are worthy of your investment.
EUGENE R. BATEN, LMSW
Sumter County Council, District 7