BRADENTON – Even with an expensive PAC campaign pushing a save our schools message, voters proved very wary of giving the Manatee School District more money via an extra millage point on school property taxes. The referendum, conducted Tuesday, passed 51-49.
The school district will use the approximately $33 million annually to increase long-stagnant teacher salaries, along with higher pay for bus drivers, paraprofessionals, support staff and some administrators. It will also add 30 minutes of instructional time to the school day.
In passing the additional tax, Manatee Schools becomes the only district in the state to collect both it and the optional half cent sales tax (also providing around $33 million each year), which voters apporoved in 2016.
When polls closed, 28,949 people had voted yes, while 27,392 had voted no. The 23.9 percent turnout was higher than expected and likely driven by the more than 6,000 district employees and those close to them.
Pay for Manatee County teachers and support staff has long trailed surrounding counties, particularly Sarasota. According to the district, teachers will now receive an average pay increase of $5,842.
Bus drivers will receive an increase of $1,275 per driver. Paraprofessionals (including teachers’ aides and assistants) will get an average pay increase of $2,400. District charter schools get a share of 14.5 percent of the money from the tax, while STEM/CTAE programs will get 15.5 percent.
Property taxes will increase by$1 per every $1,000 of a property’s value, with the first $25,000 exempt, costing the owner of a $225,000 home about $200 per year, or $17 per month.
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