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Carlisle to ask voters for bond issue, tax hike

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By Steven Matthews, Staff Writer 8:31 PM Monday, January 30, 2012

CARLISLE — The Carlisle Local School District is approaching voters March 6 in its effort to pass a bond issue and an income tax for operations.

The same combination levy — bond issue ($28.1 million) and income tax increase (0.75 percent) — was on the ballot in November, and was rejected by voters, 57 to 43 percent in Warren County.

Four months later, Carlisle officials believe there is a better chance that it passes.

“More people came out in 20 years, and there were more yes votes than expected (more than 1,300),” second-year Carlisle Superintendent Larry Hook said. “We have a very strong group of people that want to see the community grow.”

If it passes, the bond issue will cost an owner of a home valued at $100,000 an additional $21 a month, while the 0.75 percent income tax increase will generate $1.3 million annually. Collections would begin in January 2013.

While locally the bond issue would raise $28.1 million if it is approved, the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission would then contribute $29.8 million for a new K-12 building that would open in the fall of 2015.

“It’s an opportunity to collect $30 million that we don’t have to raise in the community,” Hook said, “and that’s big. We’d be very naive to think that the money is going to be here very long.

“It’s our turn,” he added. “We need to do our part to get it. All that money would be infused into the community and impact us positively economically. In small towns, the hub of the community is the schools.”

That $57.9 million figure also covers the cost renovations to the stadium, a new performing arts center, demolition, road improvements and landscaping. The stadium renovations — a new track and field turf — would be completed by this fall. The average age of Carlisle’s four buildings is 55 years old, Hook said.

Hook said if the bond issue doesn’t pass, the OSFC money that is available would be released back into the pool, and that Carlisle “won’t go back and ask for it until the operating money is secured.”

Carlisle has a projected deficit of $480,000 for fiscal year 2013, and about $500,000 in cuts would have to be made if the levy doesn’t pass. If it does pass, new programs would not be added; rather, it is to maintain the current services.

The district, which serves 1,800 students, has cut $1.5 million from its budget in the last several years — about the same time that the Ohio Department of Education placed it on fiscal watch. It’s current budget is $14 million annually.

“When you’re talking cuts of that size in a budget like the size of Carlisle’s,” Treasurer Dan Bassler said, “it boils down to personnel.”

Allyson Couch, co-chair of the levy committee, said the group is putting together brochures, planning community meetings and sending out emails to inform the community as much as possible.

“In the fall, it was a very positive campaign,” said Couch, whose group does not face opposition from an anti-levy organization. “We weren’t really getting into the cuts and cutbacks. Now, there’s a sense of urgency, not just with the buildings, but for the general fund money, too. I hope that Carlisle understands the unique opportunity that they have — to provide this generation and future generations with a quality education.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5113 or steven.matthews@coxinc.com.

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