“The discussion is still being had. We’re willing to consider other options, if any,” said Brett Guido, school board president. “The decision we made on Wednesday to pass an income tax levy was more about timing than making a final decision. We just ran out of time.”
The board wanted to wait until it received a series of state audit reports back from the state before making a resolution decision. But the audits have not been completed and the income tax levy deadline was still set for Friday, so they went with a resolution without the audit findings simply because they had to.
“The community is looking for answers to what happened, and so is the board,” Guido explained. “At least part of the answers we’re looking for will come from that audit.”
The school board approved the wording of a 1 percent income tax over five years in order to have a resolution available that would meet the Friday’s deadline for submitting income tax levies to the August ballot.
Monroe school district treasurer Holly Cahall provided three tax levy options — an earned income tax, an emergency property tax and a possible combination of the two — during Wednesday’s meeting.
“The property tax certainly irritates senior citizens because they’re on a fixed income, and if you look at an income tax it will make younger people mad. You put a combination tax on the ballot and it could make everybody mad,” said board member Tom Birdwell at the Wednesday meeting.
The deadline to file a levy resolution involving a property tax is May 9. The board did not consider wording for a possible property tax resolution on Wednesday because it had to meet the Friday deadline for an income tax resolution first.
If one tax levy is decided upon, the other resolutions will be taken out of consideration and would mean there won’t be two separate tax levies on the ballot.
“We appreciate how the community has been engaged and involved in this process,”’ Guido said. “We hope they’ll stay involved as we continue this process.”
The next Monroe school board meeting is set for 7 p.m. Monday in the elementary school cafeteria.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2851 or jbombatch@coxohio.com.
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