This is the third time that Franklin schools have gone to the ballot in the last year to request money from voters. Both previous levy requests were soundly rejected.
Franklin schools treasurer Kevin Hawley said the dollar amount would be dependent on filing amounts and type of income, but it would be 1% of what the state defines as your traditional income base.
Hawley said the district chose to seek an income tax to allow seniors in the community some relief.
Last May, Franklin schools proposed a five-year, 6.301-mill property tax levy that would have raised $4.5 million annually to fund district operating costs and would have cost homeowners $220.54 a year for each $100,000 of appraised home value. Voters rejected the ask with 65.8% voting against the levy and 34.2% for the levy.
Franklin schools leaders have said the last time the district passed a levy was 11 years ago, and at that time, officials promised that levy would last at least eight years.
“The district has been excellent stewards of residents’ tax dollars, and we’ve managed our finances to make the levy last 11 years,” said Michael Sander, the district’s superintendent.
Fiscal emergency
The school district is facing fiscal emergency, the most severe rating of fiscal crisis in Ohio schools, after state funding to the district was cut in the latest state budget, officials said.
The district would see an additional two-year state funding loss of nearly $1.7 million under the Senate budget, according to the Legislative Service Commission, a nonpartisan government body that provides information to state government officials on state bills.
Fiscal emergency in Ohio results in a state-appointed panel replacing the elected school board, with the board creating a financial plan to solve the crisis.
Hawley said the district was not on a path to be under fiscal emergency until this summer, when the state budget was passed.
“The district had been making a lot of changes and trying to be as efficient as possible and make cuts to try to avoid that,” Hawley said. “Unfortunately, the state kind of took that out of our hands and cut our funding.”
Sanders said under fiscal emergency, district officials and the state commission would continue to make cuts. The district cut $1.2 million this school year because the spring levy failed, reducing busing to state minimums, increasing classroom and extracurricular participation fees, and eliminating all-day kindergarten.
“If we get in a fiscal emergency, that’s state taking over. You really lose local control of the district, unfortunately,” Hawley said.
Franklin schools officials predicted the district would have about 6% of the district’s annual expense in cash on hand on June 30, according to the district’s five-year forecast. State boards generally recommend three to six months of cash on hand.
“I can tell you from a financial standpoint, we are at a position where we either need to keep making cuts or where we need to increase our revenue,” Hawley said. ”I think these kind of things, right now, especially on the revenue side, are just imperative to the health of the district.”
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