Feb 08 2013

Failure for Half of New Money School Levies This Week

Three of the six new money school levies on Tuesday’s special election ballots failed. The Midview levy passed with 62% voting in favor of the property tax. The Jackson Center levy passed after failing by only 3 votes in the November election. Waterloo Schools levy passed by just 25 votes, or 50-49%. The failure of the levies for the Hillsdale, Coventry and Edison districts could result in immediate consequences. Hillsdale may be forced to lay off as many as 19 staff members to close a $1.7 million deficit, and Edison has said it will eliminate busing and close an elementary school. The three levies that passed will add to the $487 million in new taxes Ohio residents have voted to put into effect since the Kasich budget — which left schools with $1.8 billion less funding — was introduced.

Feb 04 2013

More ‘new money’ levies on tap tomorrow in Ohio local schools special elections

Voters in nine Ohio counties will vote on local school levies tomorrow. All of the levies to be considered are requests for new money. This seems to be the trend in the aftermath of Kasich’s $1.8 billion in cuts to school district funding. We have seen an unprecedented $1.1 billion in new property and income taxes for schools since Kasich’s last budget. On Tuesday, there will be 5 school districts asking for money to use on operating costs in 8 counties. There is also a levy on the ballot in Summit County, but it’s for construction projects so it’s not related to the schools who are struggling to maintain operation. [Read more…]

Jan 29 2013

News Release: Kasich Budget Cuts = $1 Billion in School Levies

For Immediate Release: January 29, 2013 Contact: Dale Butland, 614-783-5833

Kasich Budget Cuts = $1.1 Billion in School Levies IO Blows Whistle on “Kasich Shell Game”

Columbus – Innovation Ohio, a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus, released an analysis today proving what Kasich Administration critics have long suspected: the Governor has merely shifted the responsibility for adequately funding Ohio schools from the state to the local level. Specifically, IO’s analysis finds that since May, 2011, a record-breaking $1.1 billion in local property and income tax levies earmarked for schools has appeared on local ballots. Voters approved just 40% – or $487 million – leaving numerous school districts across the state scrambling to maintain needed academic programs and staffing levels. IO stressed that the $1.1 billion figure includes only new operating money, not renewal or replacement levies or money for capital projects. [Read more…]

Nov 26 2012

IO November 2012 School Levy Project Wrap: Kasich cuts have shifted tax burden or put schools in dire situations

Dyer: Ohio’s reliance on property tax system to fund schools growing, not shrinking under Kasich

Back in October we released an analysis which showed that November school levy initiatives seeking ‘new money’ were the highest since 2008. Just last year, the administration of Gov. John Kasich and the GOP-led Ohio General Assembly cut $1.8 billion from Ohio public education. We believe there is a cause and effect relationship here and it boils down to this: Kasich’s cuts – while making the state budget look better – simply shifted the burden in many villages and cities around Ohio onto the backs of local property tax payers. Of course, in many cases, the levies failed. In those communities Kasich and his rubber stamp Statehouse shifted the burden onto Ohio kids who are losing teachers, bus service, extra-curricular activities and even hours out of the school day. Where new levies pass, the funding burden is shifting to more property taxes. As part of the project we posted several levy profiles on our blog, Innovation Station, and began maintaining a page dedicated to collecting our analysis, profiles and infographics on the topic, Kasich Cuts = More Levies. We want to wrap up the work from this fall, but we will continue to watch what we believe is going to be an unfortunate trend for some time to come in Ohio – more levies or more drastic cuts.

A few things to remember about our work. First, we concentrated on ‘new money’ levies. This simply means that districts we looked at were coming to voters with requests for additional or new millage requests. We did not count renewal levies for instance when we pointed out that 83% of Ohio’s counties had new money levies on the ballot. When it came to the districts we chose to profile, there were two criteria. They had to be new money levies and the districts had to have a documented history of recent fairly drastic cuts. Through a review of Ohio local media, such districts – large and small – were not hard to find. One last note on why we chose to look at fall levies rather than all levies from both the spring and fall of this year. The chart to the right shows the success rate of renewal levies v. new levies during fall elections in Ohio. New money levies have a high rate of failure in fall elections. School boards know this. For a board to go to voters for new money in the fall is a sign that funding issues are getting to critical condition in that district. [Read more…]

Nov 05 2012

After Kasich Cuts, Ohio Village Receives Donation

We’ve been running an ongoing project – Kasich Cuts = More Levies. While we’ve focused primarily on school levies, from time to time interesting municipal situations catch our eye. The village of Lowell in Washington County may be small, budget amounts don’t number in the millions, but the Kasich cuts to local governments in have had a big effect. This November voters will decide on a 2-mill tax levy to fund current expenses in the village. Taten Ayers, Lowell village clerk, told the Marietta Times:

Due to cuts to the local government funds Washington County will receive in 2013, the village of Lowell anticipates receiving $11,686.74 in those funds after repayment deductions, a 74 percent or $34,023 reduction in revenue funds compared to 2011, Ayers said. To balance Lowell’s general fund budget for 2013, ‘We’re gonna need to come up with about $44,000 roughly,’ said [Mayor David] Pitzer.

Beyond asking voters to approve a levy request, the village has received private donations to help maintain police and fire services that were in jeopardy due to Kasich’s cuts.

Nov 02 2012

School Levy Profile: Rocky River City Schools

Rocky River City School District is yet another example of how Gov. John Kasich’s 1.8 billion in cuts to Ohio public schools have forced local taxpayers to pick up the tab. The school district is asking for a continuing 4.9 mill operating levy in order to replace revenue generated by the Commercial Activity Tax . The district stands to lose $3.5 million over the next four years in state funding cuts including $815,000 that was cut in 2012. Voters in Rocky River defeated a 5.9 mill request from the district and now will be asked to approve a smaller levy in order to avoid steep cuts in staff and programming. Before going to the ballot, teachers agreed to a salary freeze for the third year in a row and accepted health insurance concessions totaling $800,000 per year. The district also cut foreign language programs, suspended the purchase of musical instruments, and cut all departments by 10%. If the levy does not pass in November, $1.6 million in cuts would need to be made. This means cutting teachers, administrators, secretaries, transportation and security are all possible. [Cleveland Plain Dealer. ]

Oct 25 2012

School Levy Profile: Perrysburg Exempted Village Schools

Today in our extended look at school levies resulting from Kasich budget cuts, we head to northwest Ohio’s Wood County home of the Perrysburg Exempted Village Schools. Gov. John Kasich’s $1.8 billion in cuts to Ohio public education put a $3 million hole in the Perrysburg schools budget. This hit couldn’t have come at a worse time. Perrysburg is a Toledo bedroom community that’s been rapidly growing over the past few years. In the past five years, its school district has seen enrollment gains of 7%. The district is having problems with overcrowded classrooms and needs more teachers and space to keep class sizes down. But that’s kind of hard when you’ve had to cut staff by 6% to stay solvent. It could get worse. [Read more…]

Oct 19 2012

Not just schools seeking new money in levies this year

We released a study last week on how the Kasich cuts to education – $1.8 billion in the last budget – have stretched many Ohio school districts to the point of seeking new money or increased millage in levies this November. In essence, the governor’s last budget simply balanced the state’s books on the backs of schools and local governments. Local governments were hit with the phaseout of the estate tax and drastic cuts to the Local Government Fund. These cuts are apparent in local government levies as well this November. [Read more…]