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Home > Blogs > Middletown School News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > April > 09 > Entry
Board looks at possible August bond issue
Valley View board members will meet tonight and April 15 to discuss the possibility of going back to voters in August with a bond issue that more than 73 percent of voters turned down in November.
Prior to the March 4 primary, officials there were saying they would be back in August if voters rejected the 9.54-mill levy that would fund the local portion of about $32 million for a new kindergarten through 12th grade building. The state’s Ohio School Facilities Commission has guaranteed $34 million in state funding for the project, according to Superintendent Sherry Parr.
Following the levy’s overwhelming rejection by voters, the board scheduled two special meetings to discuss the district’s options.
Nearly three-fourths of the population sends a pretty clear message, but if the district can’t secure the local portion of the project by next year, it risks losing the state funding.
The 9.54-mill levy included for the building plus the legally-required 0.5-mill permanent improvement levy for upkeep, according to Parr. It would have raised taxes $292 a year for the owner of a $100,000 home.
One of the big sticking points for some Germantown voters was the possibility that the village might lose revenues it collects from incomes taxes for the school employees who work there because the new building would be in Jackson Twp. where Farmersville-Germantown and Manning roads meet.
The entities that make up Valley View Schools — the villages of Germantown and Farmersville and German and Jackson townships — were working on a joint economic development district that would allow income taxes to be collected in the township because state law does not grant taxing authority to townships, according to Parr. The revenues would have been split among the entities.
Germantown officials sent a letter out right before the March 4 vote that said the village may have to consider a new source of revenue such as a one-mill levy or cutting services if the bond issue passed because they had not yet agreed to the J.E.D.D. The letter said that the village had not yet agreed because it had not been guaranteed an annual funding amount in the J.E.D.D. or that the amount would be at least as much as it the $77,000 it collects currently.
Officials from the other entities said they were “infuriated” by the letter, which they called a “scare tactic.”
What do you think of this situation? With the state portion of the project at risk, do you think the board should go back to voters? Or do you think that the 73 percent rejection sends a message that voters will not go for this plan?
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