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Officials of Hilliard Schools are dispatching solicitors to collect at least 15,000 of the 402,000 signatures required to put a proposed School Funding Amendment on the November ballot. Their selling point is that this amendment will simultaneously lower your property taxes and generate more money for the schools. That is not quite the whole truth. Local school property taxes will be not eliminated. The minimum local contribution required by the State will be lowered from 23 to 20 mills. However, the amendment would simultaneously remove the protections that prevent your property tax from increasing with the value of your home. Treasurer Wilson estimates that this change will increase our collective annual property taxes by $7.2 million. Supporters of this amendment say it shifts the burden of funding schools from property taxes to the State. What a strange thing to say. Where does the State of Ohio get its money? Does a dollar of one tax cost less than a dollar of another? Ask the solicitor how much your total tax burden will change. They won't know. The official website for the amendment, www.rightforohio.org shows the new funding requirements being larger than today, but is ambiguous about how much larger. Today, we decide how much we will tax ourselves to support our schools. Periodically, our School Board must come before us and explain why more money is needed. We debate and argue, and eventually reach a decision. But it is our decision. In the proposed system, funding is determined by the State Board of Education. The amount they allocate may be well short of that required to operate our schools in the manner we are accustomed. Their objective is to send more money to the urban and rural districts, not suburban districts. In fact, the amendment contains language allowing the State the cap funding if the new formula allocates an amount which would "exceed the amount necessary." The amendment anticipates this. Local districts retain the authority to pass property tax levies to fund their district at a level higher than the State provides. However, local property taxes would no longer be protected from increases due to reassessments. Nor would these additional local property taxes include the exemption for senior and disabled citizens. In our district, 85% of the budget pays for the salaries and benefits of the administrators, faculty and staff. This is not surprising - a school system is a professional services organization. If we want to have great schools, we need to have great people. We also need to understand that the cost of this team increases 4% every year as the employees work their way up the pay scale. These increases are automatic, defined by the collective bargaining agreements negotiated by the teachers' union. Because compensation increases automatically, the educators desire a funding system that automatically collects more taxes without having to ask for our approval. There is no right or wrong choice, but please invest the time to make your decision wisely. Visit www.savehilliardschools.org as a start.
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