Kasich cuts mean $1.3 billion in “new money” requests for schools
On May 7, voters in 62 school districts across Ohio will go to the ballot to consider requests for $147 million in new operating money as a result of the continued erosion in state support for education. Here’s a list of districts on the ballot.
Combined with previous new money levies for schools on the ballot since the first Kasich budget — which featured a $1.8 billion reduction in education funding — the May issues means that Ohio voters will have been confronted with over $1.3 billion in requests for new operating money from school districts statewide in just over two years.
The levies are part of an ongoing tax shift in which the state reduces support for schools and local government in order to fund hardly-noticed tax cuts at the state level. Last week, the Ohio House adopted much of Kasich’s latest proposal to further cut the state income tax while providing less for schools than they received four years ago. The average taxpayer will see a reduction of less than a dollar a week in state taxes, while local taxes for schools, safety forces, roads and other services continue to go up.
Press releaseSpreadsheet of all 62 levies on the May 7 ballot.Our earlier analysis of school levies since May, 2011.
