Resident questions $10.6 million bond and rising millage during public comment at Lee County school board meeting

During the board’s public-comment period, Beverly Carswell raised concerns about school spending, a recently approved $10,600,000 bond and rising property tax assessments.

Carswell said taxpayers are "headed for another tax increase due to overspending and higher values placed on taxpayers' properties" and asked whether the bond — which she heard described both as funding elementary-school renovations and as funding a new gym — had been approved by voters. She cited millage-rate figures for recent years, saying 2023 was 15.0 and 2024 was 17.0, and questioned why Lee County has not adopted senior property-tax exemptions available in many other Georgia counties. "Someone needs to be held accountable for what has happened," Carswell said.

The board thanked Carswell for attending and said it would take her remarks under advisement; no substantive response or action was taken during the meeting to resolve the questions she raised. Several items relating to budgets, SPLOST revenue and a prior bond were discussed earlier in the meeting during administrative reports and the consent agenda, but Carswell’s specific questions about the bond’s purpose and voter approval were not answered at the meeting.