Thursday, September 18, 2008
By Harold Gwin
The school board will have to redo and resubmit the levy documentation.
YOUNGSTOWN — Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said there’s still time for the Youngstown school district to get its 9.5-mill, four-year tax levy on the November election ballot.
Brunner’s office notified the Mahoning County Board of Elections on Tuesday that the levy issue hadn’t been approved for inclusion on the ballot.
There is some conflicting language in a resolution enacted by the city school board.
“They can still get on the ballot,” Brunner said Wednesday.
The board can redo and resubmit the necessary documentation and proceed, she said, adding that it must all be completed and approved by Sept. 30 in time for the issuance of absentee ballots.
There is sufficient time to do that, she said.
Brunner said it is her understanding the resolutions passed by the school board called for a four-year tax, but the ballot language sent along with those documents to the state specified a five-year tax.
There was a concern the tax levy wouldn’t be on the ballot.
To place a levy in front of voters, a school district must approve the tax proposal by resolution at two separate meetings, and the Youngstown school board did that in August.
But the language on pages 5 and 6 of the second resolution listed the number of years for the levy at five instead of four, resulting in the denial of approval for the levy to appear on the ballot, according to information received by the Mahoning County Board of Elections.
Shelley Murray, school board president, said it appears one of the resolutions contained conflicting language, referring to the levy as both a four-year tax and a five-year tax in separate sections.
She said the board of elections indicated it isn’t uncommon for typographical errors on ballot issues to be corrected and resubmitted.
“We should be able to be on the ballot,” she said.
Voters have rejected a 9.5-mill, five-year levy from the school district three previous times.
Those rejections, along with a review of financial projections, resulted in the board’s decision last month to reduce the time frame by one year.
The Ohio Secretary of State’s office faxed a handwritten note to the Mahoning County Board of Elections on Tuesday stating, “No approval” on the school issue “due to conflict in underlying resolutions.”
If the Secretary of State’s office won’t approve the ballot language, the elections board would have to remove it from the ballot, said Thomas McCabe, county election board director.
The levy committee had planned a kick-off rally today, but canceled it a week ago because of scheduling conflicts.
Scott Schulick, committee chairman, was unaware of the language problem and said the committee would try to determine today where the latest development leaves the campaign.
The committee has planned a $50-per-person fundraiser for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Mount Carmel banquet hall as part of an effort to raise $25,000 to $30,000 to fund the campaign effort.
Schulick said both the Youngstown Education Association teacher’s union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union have an increased presence in the levy campaign this time, providing various types of assistance as well as financial support.
The campaign has also enlisted the assistance of some interns from Youngstown State University who are marketing and political science majors to help organize the effort.
The message is that a strong school system is tied to Youngstown’s future, Schulick said.
The campaign is also designed to focus on the extensive spending reductions implemented by the school board over the last two years in dealing with a general fund deficit, he said. The district has trimmed spending by $26 million, largely through the elimination of 450 jobs.
School officials have said passage of the levy in November would result in an additional $5.3 million in revenue for four years — enough to allow the district to eliminate the deficit by 2011 or 2012.
gwin@vindy.com