Wednesday, February 03, 1999
Wayne schools considering levy
Renewal won't raise taxes
BY MIRIAM SMITH
The Cincinnati Enquirer
WAYNESVILLE — Residents may face a renewal of a tax that a Wayne Local School official said is needed to pay for the district's operating costs.
The board of education is expected next week to decide whether to place a renewal of a five-year emergency operating levy on the May ballot, said Superintendent Charles Williams.
Such levies are used to fund day-to-day school operations.
Residents wouldn't see an increase in taxes because it is a renewal, Mr. Williams said. It costs the owner of a $100,000 home about $92 a year.
The millage, which has not yet been determined, likely will be slightly more than 3 mills and would generate $368,000 annually for five years, he said.
It is “absolutely essential” the issue pass to continue to offset a 1994 property tax reduction for MCI Telecommunications in Wayne Township af ter the company won an appeal in the Ohio Supreme Court, Mr. Williams said. The company claimed it needed the reduced rate to stay competitive with other telecommunications companies.
After the MCI property tax reduction, the district was receiving about $400,000 less in property taxes — or 10 percent of its budget annually, Mr. Williams said.
The state offered a one-time payment of 80 percent of what the district lost the first year the property tax reduction went into effect, Mr. Williams said.
Since then, the district has been relying on an operating levy passed in 1994 to offset the reduction and any additional growth, he said.
“We have had a very tight cash flow problem here in the last year or so,” Mr. Williams said, noting that a new high school was opened just last fall. “We've tried to live within our means. This is a critical part of our survival.”
The board will meet Monday and vote on whether to place a “resolution of need” on the ballot. If that passes, it will be taken to the auditor to determine the valuation.
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