Board considers going to voters for 2 levies

The district has until mid-August to get a levy on the November ballot.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown Board of Education is considering asking voters to approve two tax levies to help cover the school district's budget deficit.
No decisions have been made, but the board indicated Tuesday that it is looking at both a 12-mill, five-year emergency levy and a 2.5-mill permanent improvement levy that could appear on the November ballot.
Dr. Wendy Webb, superintendent, said the district continues to look for ways to cut spending in an effort to reduce the size of a tax increase needed to overcome Youngstown schools' red ink.
The school district had expected to end this fiscal year June 30 in the black, but the state announced at mid-year that it was cutting the district's subsidy by $6.7 million, primarily due to the loss of 380 pupils who had moved out of Youngstown. That turned a positive year-end cash flow into a $4 million deficit.
Adds to problem
The district had already anticipated a deficit next year and the cut in state funds this year only compounds the problem.
The administration came up with a plan to eliminate 100 jobs and cut some programs to save $8.5 million next year, but Treasurer Carolyn Funk said Youngstown is still facing a $13.6 million deficit.
A 12-mill emergency renewable tax levy would produce about $6 million a year in new revenue while a 2.5-mill permanent improvement levy would generate about $1.25 million a year.
The increases would cost a property owner with a house valued at $40,000 about $160 more a year, school officials said.
The levies would cover just over half of the deficit and the district would still have to borrow money from the state to cover the rest of the budget shortfall, Funk said.
A reduction in the number of school buildings and a declining pupil enrollment coupled with staff reductions would eventually eliminate the red ink, school officials have predicted.
Fiscal forecast
Funk's five-year fiscal forecast from 2006 through 2010 shows revenues remaining fairly constant at $106 million to $104 million per year (if no tax levies are passed) while expenditures would drop from nearly $120.5 million this year to about $101.6 million in 2010.
Getting through the next couple of years will require additional revenue, however, and the board has indicated that getting voters to approve a tax levy may be the only way to get it.
The emergency levy would go right into the general fund while the permanent improvement levy would be used to buy school buses and pay other transportation costs, freeing up general fund money that must now be allocated to those services, Funk said.
Revising plans
The district still has a couple of months to revise its financial plans. A petition seeking a November ballot position for any levy must be filed with the county election board by mid-August.
School board members Jamael Brown and Lock P. Beachum Sr. said the board needs to examine all of its options before launching a campaign to convince voters of the necessity to pass a tax increase.
Brown noted that Youngstown hasn't had a general operating tax increase since 1987. However, voters did approve tax increases in 2000 and 2004 totaling 3.9 mills to raise about $37 million to pay off bonds secured to help finance the district's $192 million rebuilding program now under way.
The state has already put Youngstown in "fiscal caution" as a result of the impending deficits. Failure to show positive steps to eliminate that red ink would likely result in the state declaring Youngstown to be in "fiscal emergency," at which point the state would step in to impose cuts to eliminate the deficit, Funk warned.
gwin@vindy.com