At the annual conference and trade show put on by the Ohio School Boards Association in Columbus last week, everyone seemed to be talking about school levies.
Some of the urban schools were cheered by passage of their levies, no doubt fueled by the heavy turnout for the presidential race. Other schools were lamenting levy failures, which meant back home they had to face budget cuts, delayed spending on needed maintenance or materials, and difficult decisions on when to go back on the ballot. More on election results.
Not if they go back on the ballot, but when.
As you no doubt know, Ohio has the distinction of having more levies than any other state. That's because Ohio school districts are prevented by state law (House Bill 920) from collecting the additional revenue that could come from higher valuations of property every year. More on HB 920. This barrier makes it difficult for school districts to just keep up with inflation without going back to the ballot again with more levies.
Ironically, the property value growth in school districts could be partially credited to the performance and reputation of the schools, as many communities tout their schools as a reason to buy property there.
No other governmental entity in Ohio faces this problem, and very few if any states have this problem. The state had 237 school levies on the ballot just this month.
The state law, House Bill 920, was passed in 1976 during a feverish debate about how to protect property owners from higher taxes that were resulting from rapid growth in property values. That inflationary time has not been repeated since, but the state law, later imbedded in the Ohio Constitution, is still in place and creating havoc for schools.
Consider that Ohio school districts have placed nearly 10,000 school levies on the ballot since the law was passed in 1976. That's about 16 levies for every school district over the past 32 years, or a levy on the ballot every other year during that time. Consider the time, resources and energy for school districts in keeping up with that pace, and the fatigue and confusion for voters who must think that the schools are insatiable in their appetite for tax revenue.
For some, the revenue is just to keep even. Batavia, for instance, got to be on the local news in Cincinnati this week, not for its academic progress or sports team victory or band concert, but because its 9.8 mill bond levy failed in August. More on Batavia. That leaves it without enough money to improve the poor condition of its buildings.
We'll talk more about the growing conversation that one way to fix Ohio school funding is to allow school districts to keep more of their local revenue so they can deliver the results that are expected of them.