There's still some bad blood between Republican school board members Deborah Prickett and Chris Malone over this month's school budget vote.

As noted in today's Eastern Wake News article by Paul A. Specht, Prickett took exception with the praise that Malone has gotten in Knightdale for having broken with Republicans to pass a budget request asking county commissioners for $8.8 million more.

On Thursday, Prickett emailed the people who spoke up for Malone in last week's Eastern Wake News article to say that she felt like those in Knightdale “didn’t understand the full story” and wanted to explain her vote. Among the people she copied the note to was Paul Coble, chairman of the board of commissioners.

Is a small property tax increase a better alternative than going for a big bond referendum next year to pay for Wake County school construction needs?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, county staff told the Wake County Board of Commissioners on Monday that a 2.7-cent property tax increase would raise $150 million a year for county schools construction. This could be used to delay a school bond issue for three years, paying for $450 million in new schools and renovations.

That $450 million would likely be smaller than what the school board would request in a 2013 bond referendum.

The Wake County school board came very close on Tuesday to not having adopted a budget request for the 2012-13 school year.

As noted in today's article, the 6-3 vote in favor the budget proposal was very much in doubt until the roll call vote. Every vote was needed because it took a two-thirds majority to waive a policy that limits Wake from using more than half its fund balance to balance the budget.

Signs of the budget being in trouble came early in the discussion when Democratic board members Kevin Hill and Jim Martin said they couldn't vote yes. They didn't feel that the requested $8.8 million increase from the Wake County Commissioners was enough in light of cuts in recent years.

More to come later, but the Wake County school board voted 6-3 tonight to approve Superintendent Tony Tata's $1.2 billion operating budget request.

The budget looked like it would be rejected until Republican board member Chris Malone crossed party lines to join the five Democrats in voting yes. His vote was needed because the budget required two-thirds approval to waive board policy allowing the district to use more than half its fund balance to balance the budget.

Malone called it a pragmatic budget, pointing to how state law requires it to be adopted by May 15 and how they were facing a new paradigm forcing the district to make tough budget decisions, including using $28.9 million in fund balance.

Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley went toe to toe with school board member Jim Martin in a lengthy discussion after the end of today's joint meeting.

Gurley had complained during the meeting about the school system using county funding to build up its fund balance. Gurley has been a longtime critic of the school system having a fund balance, saying that they should leave it up to the commissioners to cover emergencies.

What irked Gurley is that school administrators project they can replenish the fund balance by $20 million to bring it up to $25 million for the 2013-14 fiscal budget.

It looks, like for now, the Wake County school board will sign off on staff's recommendation to use $28.8 million out of the $33.9 million in the rainy-day fund.

As noted in today's article, staff made two pitches for using most of the money in the undesignated fund balance. One, staff said it's needed to avoid layoffs. Two, staff said they can replenish much of the fund balance for one more year in 2013.

"Long term, for the health of the school system, we do need to get away from using a significant amount of the fund balance toward recurring expenditures," Chief Business Officer David Neter told the school board. "That is not fiscally ideal. But again as I shared with you when I presented the budget a couple of weeks ago, we’re in survival mode at this point."

Is the Wake County school system only postponing the layoffs of hundreds of teachers and other school employees for one more year?

As noted in today's article, Superintendent Tony Tata's proposal to use $29 million out of the $34.6 million in the undesignated fund balance effectively replaces the $28 million in one-time federal dollars that saved more than 500 teaching jobs this school year.

If the school board goes with Tata's recommendation, they'll be able to keep those positions funded for the 2012-13 school year. But it's iffy at best that the money can be found again for the 2013-14 school year.

More to come, but Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata presented a $1.25 billion operating budget today calling for an $8.8 million increase in funding from county commissioners.

Tata is also asking the school board to waive policy to allow him to use $28 million of the district's $34.5 million undesignated fund balance to help balance the budget. Board policy says Wake should only spend half of its rainy-day fund.

Tata said these steps will allow him to make up the $28 million loss in federal money that saved 500 teaching jobs this year. It will also allow Wake to offer teachers a 1-percent raise and a one-time $500 bonus to non-certified staff.

Tata said the budget also includes money to help schools become more attractive that were under chosen in the new student assignment plan.

The budget also calls for no layoffs.

UPDATE

Click here to view the budget proposal. Click here to provide feedback.

Get ready for what looks to be a rocky budget season between the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the Wake County school board.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the commissioners will vote today on appointing Republicans Joe Bryan, Paul Coble and Tony Gurley to the budget, finance and education committee. Click here to view the committee assignments. The document mistakenly says 2011 and not 2012.

Bryan, nominated to chair the committee, says the GOP majority on the board of commissioners will likely stick with its pay-as-you-go philosophy of maintaining services based on the lowered revenue streams of recession years. The county is projecting slow revenue growth for the upcoming fiscal year.

The question of whether the Wake County school board should return to the county around $15 million in excess fund balance is likely to be a big issue during the budget process next year.

In a nutshell, the school system's undesignated fund balance, colloquially called its rainy day fund, has grown so much in the past few years that board policy dictates that about $15 million be returned to county commissioners.

But with next year's budget being tight, is that the right call? Also, it would take a two-thirds majority to waive policy to keep the $15 million so would a bi-partisan coalition agree to that decision?

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST, WHICH NOW INCLUDES LINK TO TUESDAY DISCUSSION ON RICK & DONNA MARTINEZ SHOW ON WPTF