State: Retry Youngstown levy in March

Additional cuts to further reduce spending will be deeper than
anticipated.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The chairman of the state fiscal oversight commission controlling city school district finances has advised the school board to put the 9.5-mill tax levy rejected by voters Tuesday back on the ballot in March.

Turning down the levy proposal doesn’t help the district overcome a $15 million budget deficit, said Roger Nehls.

“The need for additional revenue to the district is not going to go away,” he said during a Financial Planning and Supervision Commission meeting Thursday.

Voters have now turned the levy down twice, by a 2,000-vote margin a year ago and by 1,800 voters this week.

The city school district has made significant reductions in spending but was facing additional cutbacks even if the levy had passed.

Now, those cuts will be “even deeper” because the district isn’t getting the anticipated $5 million in annual revenue the levy would produce, Nehls said.

The state placed Youngstown under fiscal emergency in November 2006, resulting in the appointment of a five-member oversight panel to control finances while the district seeks to return to solvency.

A five-year financial forecast presented to the commission didn’t brighten the picture any.

Nehls noted that the cost of employee services doesn’t appear to be dropping as much as the commission had expected.

Salaries this year are expected to total $53 million and drop only to about $49.7 million by 2012, despite the fact the district already has eliminated 250 jobs.

“We’re not recognizing the kinds of savings we anticipated,” Nehls said, asking the district to prepare a detailed report on the matter.

He also asked that the board take quick action to get the levy issue ready for the March ballot and to bring the issue to the commission for its endorsement at its Dec. 13 meting.

The forecast shows the district is on track to have its deficit grow to $44.6 million by 2012.

Delores Womack, chairman of the Citizens Action Committee Against the Levy, told the commission her group is pleased the levy failed, but it is also sympathetic to the district’s financial plight.

Members are willing to donate their time to help the district find additional ways to reduce spending, Womack said, suggesting, for example, that she could do a comparative analysis of purchasing to see where the district might save money on the paper it buys.

gwin@vindy.com