Development Authority of Bulloch County CEO Benjy Thompson, left, presents the “big check” representing $1.9 million in industries' payments in lieu of taxes to Board of Education Chair Elizabeth Williams while Superintendent Charles Wilson, in background, smiles along with them. – photo by AL HACKLE/Staff In the past two months the Development Authority of Bulloch County has conveyed “payments in lieu of taxes” totaling more than $2.46 million from three partly property tax-exempted manufacturers to the county Board of Education for operation of the schools and to the county commissioners for fire protection. When the Development Authority’s CEO Benjy Thompson delivered the check for the Bulloch County Schools’ share of that money, $1,910,200 and 47 cents, during the school board’s March 12 meeting, the six board members present immediately found a use for about half of the total. By their informal agreement, it will be used to extend a $2,000 pay supplement the state is funding for most teachers and other state formula-funded school personnel so that all of the school district’s regular employees get the full bonus. (That doesn’t include the board members themselves.) “Today
