Gov. Mike DeWine is poised to sign a two-year budget bill into law, but if he does, Ohio’s schools, communities and law enforcement agencies may find themselves behind the financial eight ball.
Without providing an alternative funding source, the Ohio House version — HB 335 — would prohibit school districts, counties, cities and villages from collecting inside millage. The Ohio Senate has its version of a budget bill in SB 96, and DeWine, who provided state legislators with his own version of a budget bill, has the power of line item vetoes over whatever reaches his desk.
Without knowing if the senate’s, house’s or governor’s version of the bill will become law, Ravenna City Schools Treasurer Kristen Plageman said she is calculating the consequences of all three scenarios.
SB 96 would prohibit replacement property tax levies, fixed sum emergency levies, substitute levies and combined school district income tax and fixed sum property tax levies. It would require districts to include current emergency and substitute levies to be included in calculations they are currently held separate from, and would prohibit them from combining renewal levies with increases to existing levies.
Senate Bill 96 would partially defund Ohio’s Fair School Funding Plan, which state Democrats and Republicans passed to solve the state’s unconstitutional formula. Since it limits school districts from carrying over more than 30% of reserve funds and strips funds from districts whose reserves exceed that cap, those districts will be left with two choices: spend down their cash reserves or lose the funding, Plageman said.
That, Ohio Senate Democrats say in their bill analysis, will force school districts to ask voters for even more school levies when Ohio already leads the nation in that ranking.
“This measure serves only to punish public schools who are being good fiscal stewards, and does nothing to address real, impactful property tax relief for residents, especially for our seniors,” Portage County treasurer John Kennedy said.
Portage County would lose more than $12 million a year, wiping out the almost $11 million in increased revenue the county’s general fund gets from the most recent round of property revaluations. The amount is nearly 18% of Portage County’s overall $68 annual million budget, Kennedy added.
Should HB 335 or some version of it become law, Ravenna schools would stand to lose 4.6-mills a year, Plageman said.
“We’re kind of prepared for whatever the governor’s budget is because we’re very conservative and used the governor’s version where the House and Senate versions are better scenarios for us. We erred on the side of caution and just used the governor’s budget in our forecast,” she said.
The Ohio Legislative Service Commission, which provides the general assembly with drafting, research, budget and fiscal analysis crunched the numbers should HB 335 become law.
- Aurora schools would see $6.6 million less each year, and the city would lose $2.7 million.
- Kent schools would see $3.3 million less each year, and the city would lose $2.5 million.
- Ravenna schools would see $2.2 million less each year, and the city would lose $918,325.
- Streetsboro schools would see $3.9 million less a year, and the city would lose $2.2 million.
- Crestwood schools would see $2.7 million less a year, and the villages that send students to that district would lose $85,649.
- Field Local Schools would see $4.8 million less a year.
- James A. Garfield schools would see $1.6 million less each year, and the villages that send students to that district would lose $227,007.
- Mogadore schools would see $678,150 less each year, and the Village of Mogadore would lose $265,869.
- Rootstown schools would see $1.9 million less a year; Southeast schools, $2.4 million; and Waterloo schools, $1.5 million.
- Windham schools would see $342,242 less a year and the village of Windham would lose $111,248.
Aurora schools superintendent Mike Roberto said the revenue loss would force the district to cut about 60 teachers — a quarter of its certified staff. Teacher-student ratios would jump to 1:40, and the district doesn’t even have classrooms large enough to accommodate such numbers, Roberto said.
Course offerings would be significantly reduced for students In grades 6-12. Academic support programs would disappear for students in grades K-5, reducing learning opportunities and interventions for struggling learners, Roberto said.
To combat the cut, Aurora schools would have to ask voters for a 5.6-mill levy just to maintain current funding, and would need to float even more tax levies as the district’s costs and needs increase.
If SB 96 passes without incorporating HB 335 provisions into it, inside millage would remain, Roberto said. School districts, including Aurora’s, would realize a small funding increase, but significantly below what would have received under the bipartisan-approved fair school funding plan.
“Our biggest concern is that the inside millage stays and that the legislators will fund the Fair School Funding Plan as far as they can. In my opinion, it’s a matter of political will. They are increasing the amount in school vouchers. If that money were instead going to public schools they could fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan,” he said.
Roberto encouraged voters to contact DeWine’s office to voice their feelings about the proposed budget bill.
All versions of the proposed budget financially strap school districts and rob them of their ability to plan for the future, Portage County NAACP state education chair Geraldine Nelson said.
“It cuts back on services, particularly for students with special needs. It limits mental health services and support from preschool through college. Those families need those social services. They need that additional support,” Nelson said.
After rejecting four consecutive school levy bids, Ravenna city and township voters in May approved a 5.47-mill tax levy that will generate $2.75 million a year, and will cost property owners $192 a year per $100,000 of valuation.
Should HB 335 or some version of it become law, school districts will have no choice but to ask voters to approve more, and more costly tax levies, she said. That’s a hard sell anywhere, but especially in financially strapped communities, which includes much of Portage County, she said.
And when school levies fail, communities follow.
“Education equals economic development because it prevents brain drain. We lose the teachers because we don’t have the money in these poor, economically challenged districts. We need to be able to pay these teachers and support staff,” Nelson said.
Nelson also expressed concern about a provision in the budget bill that would make state and local school board races partisan. Instead of voting for the best, pro-student, pro-family, pro-education candidate, voters would find it easy to simply vote along party lines, she said.
The loss of nearly $1 million a year “could significantly impact” the city of Ravenna’s future budgets, forcing city leaders to make “some serious decisions,” city finance director Tami Lorence said.
Discussion topics would include changes in spending and finding other funding resources, Lorence said, adding her hope that the bill sees some compromises prior to passage.
Streetsboro finance director Matt Miller said city leaders have adopted a ‘wait and see’ attitude. Declining to cite specifics, he said any loss of funding would negatively impact the city.
The proposed budget also affects local law enforcement. In a June 19 Facebook post, Summit County Sheriff Kandy Fatheree stated that HB 335 would eliminate more than $40 million from that county’s general fund. The funding loss would:
- impair the ability of county sheriffs to provide adequate policing services
- restrict the SCSO’s ability to maintain the county jail at full operating capacity
- result in cuts to emergency dispatch services
- hamper the SCSO’s ability to respond to critical incidents: active shooters, natural disasters, civil unrest, other large-scale emergencies
The sheriff said the funding cuts would also impact her office’s ability to cover salaries, recruit deputies and staff, and renovate or expand county jails across Ohio. Community policing programs would also be curtailed or eliminated.
Also, since the proposed budget bill prohibits school districts from collecting inside millage, they may well have to eliminate school resource officers and programs like DARE, she said.
Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski did not respond to The Portager’s request for comment.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.