(Newswire.net — October 13, 2015) — Clay County, Tennessee school district voted to close its three schools because of a hole in the budget, connected to the affordable medical care program, Russia Today cited the AP. One high school and two pre-kindergarten to eight grade school facilities were closed as a result of a lack of a $9.5 million budget in government funding, however, the school officials have an additional explanation.
Although a decision was previously made to leave the school open no matter what, a school board meeting last week saw the board voting 6-4 to close the schools. A separate vote to keep them open failed.
The county’s financial issues are not new, AP reported. According to Clay County Director of Schools Jerry Strong, officials have been coping with the budget for three years, blaming state and government mandates, but mostly Obamacare for the monetary hole.
“Clay County’s inability to generate the revenue to offset the mandates is what’s caused this to come to head,” Strong told the AP.
“The straw that broke the camel’s back was really the Affordable Care Act for us and it has made it very difficult for us to have our employees properly covered and meet the mandates of the law. That was going to require new revenue and the commission felt like they couldn’t do that through a tax increase.”
In October 2014, the school board passed a plan to cover all school employees with health insurance coverage as required by the ACA. Besides, the school district had to fulfill other unspecified state mandates as well.
Struggling to secure funding, the school district authorities managed to cut down $700,000 in the past few years, however, they also needed to increase spending by $800,000 to keep up with state and federal mandates and taxes.
“This is a poor, rural county and we already have the seventh-highest property tax rate in the whole state of Tennessee. Our property taxes, they’re high enough,” County Commissioner Parrish Wright told the AP.