MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Three years after Manatee County voters narrowly approved a one-mill property tax increase to provide funding for the Manatee County School District, county voters will consider a proposal to renew that tax on the Nov. 2 ballot.

More than half of the funding from the 2018 referendum — 51% — has gone toward increasing teacher pay, with an additional 19% going toward raising pay for staff; 15.5% has gone to enhance STEM and Career and Technical programs; and 14.5 % has gone to charter schools.

The funding also provides for an additional 30 minutes of school instruction each day.

Since the measure went into effect, teacher pay has increased annually from $4,008 in the 2018-2019 school year, to $5,401, according to information provided by the Manatee Education Association.

“I support it, because I’ve lived the before and after,” said Kathleen Lyons, a third-grade teacher at Johnson K-8 School of International Studies in Bradenton. “It was just a game changer.”

Lyons said she has put the additional 30 minutes of her school day toward math instruction.

Advocates for the property tax said it was necessary in 2018 to prevent teachers from leaving the school district and going to nearby counties that paid higher salaries. Lyons admitted that she considered applying to other local school districts before the referendum was approved.

“There are neighboring counties that make substantially more for the same amount of work, and I was kind of starting to think I was willing to commute, and I went on websites and I registered to apply,” she said. “But I love my county and I love my school, and I love my students. And it was like a toss-up, you know?

"Is that battle with traffic and going to a new district and that new community worth it? But I was considering it.”

The funds are generated from a one-mill tax on all property in Manatee County. A mill is equal to $1 in property tax levied per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. That means that the owner of a house valued at $100,000 would pay $100.

But there are critics, such as Garin Hoover, a local real-estate broker, attorney and a former member of the Citizen’s Financial Oversight Committee, which monitors the spending of the school tax.

“For over three years in a row, we concluded unanimously that there can be no proof that shows that there’s evidence that this tax accomplished the goals of the tax,” he said.

According to the most recent Citizen’s Financial Oversight Committee report posted in June, “while we want to reiterate no preliminary conclusions can be drawn at this time, the data measured so far has produced mixed results.”

The report does go on to acknowledge that "student achievement has continued to rise," and that’s certainly what the school district points to.

Citing information from the district's Assessment, Accountability and Research Department, the members of the Manatee County School Board said that the district’s rating based on test scores rose from 33 to 23 for the 2020-2021 school year.

Also coming out in opposition is the Republican Party of Manatee County, which issued a resolution saying that the school board has failed to justify the need for the proposed tax prior to it being placed it on the ballot.

On the group's list of criticisms is the board again put a referendum on a special election ballot this year, which will cost $400,000, showing “a disdain for public tax revenues.”

The first time the measure went before voters in March of 2018 was also a special election, which is when Hoover said he first became involved.

“It’s a waste of money,” he said. “They could have easily put this on a general election (ballot) and not pay anything extra, because that’s money which could go back into the classroom.”

Garin said that the scope and authority of the Citizens Financial Oversight Committee has been reduced and limited, which the Manatee County Republican Executive Committee also says is a significant problem for the voters to consider.

Floridians across the state have shown support for school tax referendums in recent years. Manatee was one of 21 different counties to approve such proposals in 2018, and another nine counties did so in 2020, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Voting by mail has been going on for weeks in Manatee. Early voting will take place from Oct. 23 to Oct. 30 at the Supervisor of Elections office in Bradenton. Election Day is Nov. 2.