AUSTINTOWN School official appeals for levy

Township trustees also are considering putting a levy on the ballot.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- School district Treasurer Barbara Kliner has recommended that the school board ask voters to approve a levy of between 5 1/2 and 10 mills in November.
Kliner said a 5 1/2-mill levy would allow the board to collect about $3 million. She estimated that without additional revenue, the district will be in debt by $3.1 million at the end of the 2003-04 school year.
A 5 1/2-mill levy, however, would not produce enough revenue to allow the district to avoid going into debt in 2004-05, Kliner said. She noted that the board typically asks voters to approve a levy that will allow the district to stay out of debt for at least a few years.
The district has a $37 million budget this year.
No other choice
Board President Dr. David Ritchie said he expects the board to put a levy on the November ballot.
"I don't think we have any choice," he said before Tuesday's board meeting. "We're left with no other way to go."
The board most likely will hold in July a first reading of a resolution placing a levy on the ballot. Ritchie said the board has not discussed the length of the levy request or settled on the millage.
Some of the school district's financial problems stem from an unexpected $1.2 million personal property tax refund the board was required to pay to Phar-Mor in November. The board also had to deal with a recent decrease in the assessed value of personal property in the district that resulted in the loss of $320,000 in tax revenue.
School officials also are concerned about cuts to funding for education in the state's proposed new two-year budget.
Debt not allowed
State law does not allow school districts to go into debt. If a district is facing debt, the state will place it into fiscal emergency status.
A state official will then work with the board to make budget cuts until it can raise more revenue.
Kliner said that if the levy is approved in November, it would be the district's first new levy since 1996.
The school levy is expected to be one of many items on the township ballot in November, when voters also will select two school board members and a township trustee. The terms of Ritchie and school board member Kenneth Jakubec and Township Trustee Richard Edwards will expire at the end of this year.
Ritchie and Edwards will run for re-election; Jakubec will not.
Trustees' levy
Township trustees also are considering placing a levy on the November ballot, because the township also is facing financial problems. Edwards said "there's a good probability" that a township levy will appear on the ballot.
He said trustees haven't settled on a length or a millage for a levy proposal.
Township officials have said that because of increases in the cost of insurance, worker's compensation and wages, and decreases in revenue, about $1.2 million needs to be cut from the township's budget so that it won't end this year with a deficit. Trustees have already laid off several employees to save money.
Ritchie said voters with questions about the budget should call the board office.
hill@vindy.com