Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Charter Funding topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District outlines method, estimates for sharing surtax revenue with charter schools
Summary
Marion County budget staff briefed the oversight committee on how sales-tax revenue is allocated to charter schools under Florida statute 212.055(6), presenting an estimated total countywide sales-tax revenue and the provisional allocation for charter schools based on 2024-25 FTE counts.
Kayla Johnson, the district budget director, told the surtax oversight committee that Florida Statute 212.055(6) requires surtax revenue sharing with charter schools on a proportional basis tied to full-time-equivalent (FTE) student counts.
For fiscal year 2025-26, Johnson said the district estimated roughly $39,600,000 in sales-tax revenue and used the second FTE count from 2024-25 to produce an interim allocation. "That gives us a factor of $763 per FTE for each student in Marion County," she said, and the district's provisional total allocation for all charter schools was reported as $860,633. Johnson said final allocations will be recalculated when the district receives the official 2025-26 FTE in January 2026 and after final receipts are known.
Johnson provided a breakdown of the provisional distribution to the five charter schools recorded in the meeting notes: $415,881; $174,149; $35,899; $86,592; and $147,752. She said those figures are based on the second FTE count for 2024-25 and are subject to revision once final FTE and actual sales-tax receipts are available. "When we get those numbers, we'll revise it the allocations and we'll actually have to go back and revise based on final receipts because our revenue right now is estimated," Johnson said.
Committee members asked whether charter schools submit monthly statements of account; Johnson said the district does not receive monthly statements and that charter schools file independent annual single audits. She offered to follow up with clarification on sponsor-reporting obligations.
Why this matters: the method and timing of allocations determine how much of the surtax corpus charter schools may use for capital purposes and affect budgeting for both charter operators and district facilities planning.
