Tax exlanation

Taxes - School taxes are very misunderstood. The Brevard County School Board has not had
the authority to raise taxes in over 10 years. Currently, our only tax related authority is to
approve the school tax mileage set by the state, and to put a tax option on the ballot for voters
to decide. If we don't approve the state's mileage, they will withhold ALL federal, state and local
funding to Brevard Public Schools. So yes, I voted to approve the mileage set by the state. I
certainly don't want to be blamed for shorting Brevard county with over $500 million in school
funding.

Quater mil - This is also very misunderstood. This is NOT a new tax, nor an increase. Please
refer to your tax bills (or anyones)starting in 2007. You will see that Brevard tax payers paid 2mil
for capital outlay. Then in 2008 the state took 1/4 mil of your capital mileage (reducing capital to
1.75 mil) and moved the 1/4 mil to "School - by state law (this is what the state calls Required
Local Effort). The state moved the 1/4 mil out of tax payer pockets to subsidize what the state
should be paying. This increase is set by the state.

I personally lobbied our legislators to allow us more flexibility with what we had, rather than raise
taxes. Brevard School Board as a board, together, lobbied for flexibility. As well as other school
boards across the state. One area we asked for flexibility was in capital outlay...we got it. Now
look at 2009. notice another 1/4 mil reduction in capital. This 1/4 mil was carved out to allow us
the flexibility we lobbied for. It was set as a critical needs 1/4 mil that we could then vote to
move to general funding. THIS IS NOT A NEW TAX NOR A TAX INCREASE! You will see that
the local discretionary increased to .748 (this is .25 we moved, and .498 set by the state).

Quater Mil Revenu - The quarter mil will generate 7.8Million. since this amount, divided by the
number of students in Brevard, is below the state average per student. The state will give Brevard
1.6Million to bring our per student average up to be equal to the state's. That is 20% gain on
your taxes paid. This is by far the best return on investment of our tax dollars.