Local voters will start receiving their mail-in ballots over the next week or so for the upcoming school district referendum

Local voters will start receiving their mail-in ballots over the next week or so for the upcoming school district referendum.

The Franklin County School District is holding the mail-in referendum so voters can decide whether to allow the school district to increase its operating budget by a half mill.

The move is technically a tax increase though taxpayers shouldn’t see an increase in their tax bills because the increase in the operating budget will be offset by a decrease in the school system’s building fund.

If voters approve the measure again it will allow the school district to free up construction money and put it in the operating budget where it can be used for teacher and employee pay as well as other operating expenses.

Voters first approved the issue in 2008 –it has to be renewed every 4 years.

The current approval ends on June the 30^th.

The referendum will be done through the mail.

Voters will then have the option of mailing the ballots back to the elections office or dropping them off at the elections office in Apalachicola or Carrabelle.

They will have to be returned by 7 PM on June the 23rd to be counted. 

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