On Tuesday night, the Leon County School Board will hold the final public hearing on its 2025-2026 budget. Superintendent Rocky Hanna says the district’s funding from the legislature isn’t keeping up with expenses – but he has an idea.
Hanna wants to double the half-penny sales tax that currently goes to Leon County Schools to a whole penny—meaning local shoppers would then pay a penny for every dollar they spend.
He says he’d rather do that than raise property-tax rates because for one thing, it would mean more money for schools.
“For a millage increase, that would generate around 26 million dollars, but it would all come from Leon County property owners," Hanna said. "A half-penny sales tax – our half-penny currently generates around 31 million, so it would be 5 million dollars more, and a lot of that money comes from non-Leon County residents. So, to me it makes perfect sense, but a lot of times, things that make sense to me do not necessarily make sense to the lawmakers.”
Voters would have to agree to the half-penny increase, but first, Hanna’s idea needs approval from the legislature. He’s written to local Republican Senator Corey Simon asking for his support of the plan.
To balance the budget this year, the school district had to pull $7.5 million from its capital outlay budget to pay bus-driver salaries. But Hanna says that can’t be done again.
