Last week, the Fayette County School Board voted 3-2 to raise its occupational license tax by point 0.25%, drawing protests from parents and residents who argue the move came with little notice.
But the confusion extended beyond timing. Adrian Bryant with CivicLex says the tax shares its name with a city tax that is unrelated.
"A been a big source of confusion is that the Fayette County Public Schools occupational license tax is entirely separate from the city government's occupational license tax," says CivicLex's Adrian Bryant. "It's kind of confusing that they're worded the same. They function very similarly, but the occupational license tax that the city government collects is assessed on everyone who works in Fayette County and Lexington, and it only goes to the city. The Fayette County public school system does not get any of that money."
Second, there's an added wrinkle that this particular increase has to go through the fiscal court for approval this week, but that may turn out to be more of a formality.
"The weirdest part about this is that, according to attorneys for the city government and to Fayette County Public Schools, it looks like the fiscal court has to approve this tax, that they don't have the ability to, let's say, debate it in their fiscal court meeting this Thursday and then reject it and keep the tax rate the same," Bryant says.
Last week, the school system told WKYT that raising its occupational licensing tax did not have to meet the public notice requirements for a new tax levy because it's a county-level tax that has a "different legal process."
FCPS is raising the tax to fill a projected $16 million hole in next year's budget. Without the increase, school leaders say current programs would be in danger of going on the chopping block.