TALLAHASSEE (AP) – Many Florida school board members are griping because state lawmakers left it up to them to pass property tax increases instead of making that decision in Tallahassee.

Most of Florida’s 67 school boards are expected to exercise an option in the new state budget that will let them raise property taxes by $25 per $100,000 of taxable value. Some local school officials, though, have refused to take the political heat.

“I feel like legislators sent us an apple with a razor blade in it,” Orange County School Board member Christine Moore said when she voted against it last month in Orlando. Her board rejected the increase on a 4-3 vote even though that meant giving up $24 million a year and putting plans to build new schools on hold.

The tax increase is designed to offset a funding shift lawmakers made in an existing local option tax of $175 per $100,000 that until this year had been used only for construction, maintenance and other capital expenses.

The new state budget diverts $25 of that amount to operating expenses such as salaries. Districts have the option of using the new tax to replace the lost capital outlay funding or for operating costs.

Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association, says most of his members have little choice but to pass the increase because they are in dire financial straits. He also noted the Florida Constitution says it’s “a paramount duty of the state” to provide for the education of its children.

“There’s a huge amount of grumbling among my school board members,” Blanton said. “The Legislature has not met its state-mandated obligation and my people are not happy about it.”

Gov. Charlie Crist, who signed the budget into law, denied the state is passing the buck.

“No, we’re trying to reduce property taxes,” Crist said Wednesday. “I think that’s exactly what the people want and I would encourage local government to do the same thing – honor the will of the people, reduce their taxes, get the burden off their back.”

Passage by votes of more than a simple majority is required by law to put the increase into effect for the next two years. To keep the tax any longer will take voter approval.

If all school districts pass the tax it would raise $385.4 million statewide, said Department of Education policy and budget coordinator Link Jarrett.

The Legislature, instead, could have raised the minimum local property tax rate required to get state funding – now $531 per $100,000 of taxable property value.

Not all local officials, though, are complaining about having the decision passed down to their level.

“There’s no grumbling here,” said Palm Beach County School District spokesman Nat Harrington. “It’s an option the school boards asked for.”

Palm Beach’s board will take an initial vote on July 29.

Brevard County’s board was one of the first to pass the increase. Chairman Robert Jordan said he wanted to make sure employees knew they’d have jobs when the new school year starts in August.

Other districts that have given at least preliminary approval include Duval, Lake, Seminole and Volusia. Most will not take final action until September.

Pinellas County’s board agreed with School Superintendent Julie Mastry Janssen’s recommendation for an initial hearing July 28.

“While the individual impact on taxpayers in Pinellas County should be minimal, the overall impact of adding funding is vital to maintaining programs,” Janssen said.

Even with the new tax, Pinellas would fall $4 million short of closing an $18 million budget gap, she said.

But her counterparts in three other big counties, Miami-Dade, Broward and Hillsborough, have recommended against the tax increase.