By the time the Lakeland city board meets on Sept. 23, residents will have had 10 or more public meetings where they can learn about the proposed new combined middle/high school and the $0.55 property tax increase to fund it over the next 30 years.
The mayor and Board of Commissioners originally planned to vote on the topic at that meeting, but Lakeland mayor Wyatt Bunker said it will be postponed until October to allow attendance by all commissioners on a matter of this importance.
He explained that one commissioner cannot attend on Sept. 23 because of a schedule conflict with a medical procedure.
The October meeting itself will be on a special date – Oct. 16 – to avoid conflicts with the school system’s fall break during the week of Oct. 6-10.
Normally, the monthly city board meeting meeting falls on the second Thursday of each month.
Despite the shifting timetable on the vote, Bunker said the public forums are paying off in citizen awareness and support. Officials have participated in special community meetings at various locations, the large town hall forum at Lakeland Elementary School, and multiple city and school board meetings.
He believes all these opportunities have given the public ample chances to learn the details about the proposal, ask questions and get answers.
His back-of-the-envelope estimate is that currently a “healthy” 55% of Lakeland residents support the school and the proposed tax increase.
“We have a very positive message,” Bunker said. “It’s pro-schools; it’s pro-family; it’s pro-Lakeland.”
The October vote will be mostly a symbolic one, he said, as no tax increase will go into effect until the board approves its new fiscal year budget at the end of June. If the new budget passes, the tax increase would be retroactive to January 1, 2015, Bunker said.
At that point, there will be public notice and dissenters can request a referendum. Bunker said he welcomes it.
“I believe this decision – for a city this size – we need to vote,” Bunker said. “I wholeheartedly support the right of the people to choose.”
The project is not without critics, however. Bunker estimates that about 40 percent of Lakeland residents are not in favor of the tax increase that will support the new school. But he said that residents’ views change when they hear the city’s case for a school system that attracts new residents, which bring in business and industry on their heels.
See our Sept. 18 issue for skeptics’ viewpoints and the responses by city and school officials.
Written by Carolyn Bahm, Express editor. cotnact her (901) 433-9138 or via email to bartlett.editor@journalinc.com.
