A proposed levy request for the May primary election was tabled Wednesday by the Franklin Board of Education until after Gov. John Kasich formally announces his plans for school funding in next week’s State of the State address.

Franklin board members were poised to move forward in adopting the resolution to place a 12.77-mill continuing property tax issue on the May ballot. However, board Vice President Chris Sizemore made a motion to table the resolution to proceed and send the proposed levy to the Warren County Board of Elections, saying the board was “in limbo” until they know what the Republican governor was going to propose in his Feb. 4 speech.

Kasich’s State of the State address is expected to provide some insight on how much will be allocated for school funding and other programs during the state’s biennial budget which starts July 1.

Sizemore said until the board receives additional information on state funding, he’d prefer to be more deliberative and not move forward because the board may need to ask for more millage or perhaps less, depending on the amount of state funding the district can expect to receive.

The governor’s office was slated to provide some information to school superintendents and charter school leaders around the state on Thursday.

Board President JoAnn Feltner, who is also president-elect of the Ohio School Boards Association, told the board that she had attended meetings in Washington, D.C. last week and that if Congress proceeds with the sequestration in the federal budget, the Franklin district could lose between 5.1 and 8.2 percent of the $1.27 million it receives in federal funding. If the amount ends up at the 8.2 percent level, that means Franklin district would receive $104,000 less in federal funding, she said.

Feltner said if the sequestration cuts end up at the 8.2 percent level, that would be about $7.1 million less in federal funding for all of school districts in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, which includes all of Warren County and portions of western Hamilton County.

“The figures are all over the place,” Feltner said. “We won’t know until March how the budget sequestration will affect Franklin schools…. There are more questions than answers.”

The Franklin board scheduled a special meeting for 10 a.m. Feb. 6 to decide if it will proceed with putting the levy request on the May or an August special election ballot. The levy request needs to be filed with the county board of elections by 4 p.m. Feb. 6.

Last week, board Treasurer Jana Bellamy said the district’s revenues have decreased more than $2.3 million, or about 8.45 percent, since 2009.

For fiscal year 2013, the district expects to spend $27.8 million and expects to receive revenues of $25.6 million, Bellamy said. She said the district was notified by the Ohio Department of Education on Nov. 5 of a potential deficit in its current five-year forecast beginning in Fiscal Year 2015.

If voters approve the proposed tax levy, it would be collected starting in 2014.

Bellamy said the last time the district passed a levy was in August 2005 when voters approved a five-year emergency levy that generated about $4.06 million. That emergency levy was renewed for another five years in May 2010 for the same dollar amount.

Prior to the 2005 emergency levy being passed, Franklin voters approved a 5.9-mill continuing levy in May 1995.