Saturday, May 01, 1999
NCH schools hoping levy wins this time
BY BERNIE MIXON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NORTH COLLEGE HILL — With yard signs, a banner, fliers and a good old-fashioned rally, supporters of a school tax levy are trying to capture the attention of voters.
And with good reason — voters here have not passed a school tax issue since 1989.
Yet school officials are optimistic they will pass a 3.9-mill permanent improvement levy for renovations and repairs to aging buildings in the North College Hill School District.
“Schools affect property values as much as anything else in a community,” said Dennis Jones, a school board member and chairman of the Community Schools Committee. “If a community is known for its well-kept schools, people are more willing to move into that area.”
Levy supporters say if voters pass the tax issue, the district would not have to come back to the voters with another tax increase request for at least five years.
The levy would raise about $440,000 a year and cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $113.77 a year in new taxes, according to the Hamilton County Auditor's office.
The money would be used to complete projects such as electrical upgrades, parking lot resurfacing, window replacement and, in some buildings, heating upgrades.
Voters rejected school spending issues in the last three elections. A bond issue for additional classrooms and other improvements failed in November 1997 and again in May 1998.
The board planned to present another bond issue to voters last November but chose a permanent improvement levy instead after purchasing Goodman Avenue Elementary School last summer. That levy also failed.
School officials say they were encouraged because the gap between passage and failure was shrinking.
“I have a good feeling about this,” Mr. Jones said. “The last time, we missed by only a little over 200 votes.”
This time the group reached out to seniors and mailed registration cards to 500 parents who were not registered to vote in the last election.
Supporters will be out today handing out information leading up to a 2 p.m. march beginning at the high school and ending at Goodman Elementary with a rally.
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