Tuesday, January 26, 1999
Tax foes to battle increase for schools
Board members cite building conditions
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati Public Schools officials have “declared war on city residents” by proposing to raise taxes by as much as $92 million, anti-tax activists complained Monday night.
“We will fight back, and we will win,” said Tom Brinkman Jr. of Mount Lookout, whose six children attend private schools.
About 20 people attended Monday's school board meeting to protest a plan to ask voters in May to support a tax increase of between $24.4 million and $92 million. The critics were many of the same people who lobbied successfully to crush a $348 million bond issue sought in 1993.
A handful of residents voiced support for the increase. Inflation, building conditions, a funding gap between neighborhood and magnet schools and academic reforms drive the need for new money, school officials say.
The increase could boost taxes $103 to $390 a year for the owner of a $75,000 house.
Teachers' salaries and per-pupil spending are among the highest in Ohio, yet proficiency scores remain low, opponents said.
“The Cincinnati Public Schools are failing our children, they're failing our families, miserably,” said David Langdon, president of Family First, a conservative political action committee that pledged $5,000 to the anti-tax effort.
Board members stressed they haven't decided the size or use for the tax increase.
“I am concerned with the battle we see firing up here,” board Member Catherine Ingram said.
Board Member Lynn Marmer defended the need for an increase, saying, “Our kids go to school in buildings that none of us would work in.”
A Feb. 8 vote is planned. The deadline for getting the issue on the May ballot is Feb. 18.
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