BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ERLANGER -- Northern Kentucky's school superintendents plan to give financial statements to the state legislature to illustrate how a repeal of the personal property tax would affect their schools.
At Wednesday's monthly superintendents' meeting, members discussed ways to let the public and elected officials know how important personal property tax revenue is to school operating budgets, even in the midst of growing political pressure on legislators for tax relief.
Cars a big source
"How do you stop this train once it's on the tracks?" Fort Thomas Superintendent Larry Stinson said. "There's tremendous pressure on (the legislature.) But I can't lose 6 percent of my budget. I need to find a way to replace that."
Kentucky voters will decide this fall on amending the state constitution so legislators can exempt personal property, such as cars, from any or part of the property tax.
Personal property includes cars and intangibles such as mortgages. Approving the amendment would mean the General Assembly could tax personal property at any rate or eliminate taxing it altogether. The problem is that schools are funded through property taxes. While schools receive the bulk of their funding from property taxes on homes and businesses, a piece comes from the automobile tax. In general, Northern Kentucky's school districts receive 6 percent of their budget from the automobile tax. All personal property, cars included, makes up 8 percent of school budgets. In Fort Thomas Schools, that revenue loss would be the equivalent of 17 teaching positions.
Roger Brady, Campbell County Schools superintendent, said the districts should make sure they give legislators real numbers and not worst-case scenarios.
Schools receive more than half of the car tax collected.
The rest is split between services such as libraries, fire districts, cities, extension services and the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky.
Some of the superintendents said what happens with the amendment does not matter as long as schools are protected. "Somehow, if they take this money away, they have to address that," said Neil Stiegelmeyer, Kenton County Schools superintendent.
Robert Storer, superintendent of Walton-Verona Schools, said he wants to make sure the public understands what the amendment will do.
"It's a complicated issue," Mr. Storer said. "If the property tax is lost, the rate you have to levy on real estate might go up. It would be a sham then."
Beechwood Schools Superintendent Fred Bassett said schools could emphasize what happens when states roll back taxes. "Look at California," he said. "They're still trying to recover."
