There were fewer tax, bond and combination levies requested this year than in most of the last eight years, but many voters are tired of being continually asked to approve funds for public entities — especially school districts — during the sluggish economy.

According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office, Ohio voters will have cast ballots on 1,434 tax issues this year when the Nov. 6 election is complete.

That tops last year’s total of 1,376 and is similar to how many were on the ballot in 2009 (1,403) and 2007 (1,440), but is far fewer than those presented to voters in 2010 (1,587), 2008 (1,589), 2006 (1,635) and 2005 (1,652).

But it’s not just voters feeling the so-called levy fatigue.

“The public is fatigued because school districts keep coming after them, and school districts are fatigued because the state has still not developed a funding formula that allows districts to have a sustainable funding model,” said Tom Lasley, University of Dayton professor and former dean of education. “There are no winners out of this.”

This levy proliferation and repetition is pervasive in all corners of the state and the Dayton area. But locally, it may be most pronounced this fall in Beavercreek and Butler Twp.

In the Vandalia-Butler Twp. area, voters will decide an additional 6.99-mill school levy for operating expenses and permanent improvements, an additional 3-mill levy for police services and the Dayton Metro Library’s additional 1.56-mill levy for 26 years for improvements and construction.

If voters pass all three levies, it would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $314 more annually.

Wanda Weber has lived in Butler Twp. for 40 years. She said her monthly property tax bill is now more than her mortgage payment ever was.

“I supported the schools over the years. It’s just that we’re at a breaking point,” she said.

Weber, who said she’s torn about how she will vote on the school levy, attended one of the school district’s special weekly finance meetings to learn more about the levy and try to understand why the district keeps putting it back on the ballot.

“We voted no on this in August and here it is,” said Weber, 64. “It’s like they don’t take no for an answer. Do they think this is a bottomless well that they just keep coming to?”

In Beavercreek, voters face Beavercreek City Schools’ additional 6.7-mill emergency levy, the Beavercreek Twp. Park District’s additional 1.4-mill operating levy and Greene County Mental Health’s 1.5-mill renewal levy.

In Beavercreek, it would cost residents about $248 more for these levies per $100,000 valuation. There would be no increase in taxes with the mental health renewal.

Longtime Beavercreek resident Annette Rizer said she has mixed feelings about the number of levies she is being asked to vote on in the Nov. 6 election.

“I appreciate having a direct voice in the amount of property taxes I pay and in what my local government does with those funds,” Rizer said. “However, I do wonder sometimes if we, the voters, can really know enough about the agencies and their day-to-day work to really make well-informed decisions about funding.”

Rizer has had two daughters graduate from Beavercreek City Schools and has a son in eighth-grade. Beavercreek has had levies or bond issues on the ballot 14 times in the last nine years, which she said was largely a function of the funding method put forth by the state.

“The only reason I tire of seeing levies on the ballot is that I worry what will happen if they don’t pass,” she said, adding that she feels Beavercreek has maintained an excellent school system. “I am very concerned about the services that have been cut over the last year or so because the school levies have failed.”

Centerville City Schools is on the ballot this fall with a 5.9-mill operating levy. This is the districts’ fourth levy or combination levy and bond issue in 10 years, with the last levy in 2009.

“If we hadn’t been cut so much from the state revenue, we might have been able to stay off a little longer,” said Tom Henderson, Centerville superintendent. “And, if we hadn’t cut $12 million from the budget, we would have been on sooner.”

Keith St. Pierre, Bellbrook-Sugarcreek superintendent, said his district cut costs by $4 million in the past five years and instituted a pay freeze in an effort to stay off the ballot for at least two more years. The district had three levies between August 2008-09: an earned income tax that failed, a renewal levy and a replacement levy.

“I haven’t missed (having a levy on the ballot), and others haven’t missed it,” he said. “There’s also an understanding that our taxpayers have a lot of other entities that also are dealing with state cutbacks and that will be asking for additional revenue, as well. Reductions at the state level have been passed on to become reductions at the local level.”

Voters in Bellbrook and Sugarcreek Twp. will have plenty of other levies to vote on this fall, however, with a 1.3 mill renewal levy for the city of Bellbrook, a 0.6-mill operating levy for the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Park District, two levies for roads and bridges in Sugarcreek Twp. and the county mental health renewal.

Vandalia-Butler City Schools Superintendent Christy Donnelly said her district saw identical levies fail in November 2011 and August, and faces an $8 million deficit by the end of 2014 if this levy fails.

Donnelly was among the many educators and citizens who noted that the proliferation of school levies was a function of the state’s broken school funding model.

The Ohio Supreme Court has declared the state’s school funding system unconstitutional and inequitable, directing legislators to enact a complete systematic overhaul. Gov. John Kasich has said he is developing a new funding model, slated for release in the next year or two.

Ann Bernardo, treasurer for Huber Heights City Schools, sits on the education finance committee for the Ohio Association of School Business Officials. She said she doesn’t see any movement in lawmakers trying to come up with a solution.

“You talk to representatives and they’re stuck. It’s almost they’re not sure where to go,” she said.

State Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, agreed they are stuck. She called it a “very difficult problem” because there are rising costs and a fixed amount of funding to cover those costs.

Lehner said most states fund schools through property taxe and noted the state Supreme Court’s ruling focused on how low-wealth communities are disproportionately underfunded. “That’s what’s unconstitutional. It’s not that it’s unconstitutional to use property tax dollars for education purposes,” she said.

Lasley said there have been multiple avenues explored by the state but, while lawmakers endeavor to fix the structure, he anticipates more school levies on the ballot and a tougher road to passage.

“Levy fatigue is going to get more and more pronounced under the Common Core (State Standards) and the new (letter grade) report cards,” Lasley said. “Because they’re raising the bar, districts are going to look on the surface as though they’re not doing as well even if they’re doing as well or slightly better.”

Lehner also doesn’t see an end to districts having to go to the voters for funding.

“The cost of schools — regardless of what formula you use — is not going to decrease so the money has to come from somewhere,” she said. “It’s either going to have to come from increased revenue from the state or increased revenue locally.”