Lordstown officials want public to urge state to continue tangible personal property tax reimbursements

By Ed Runyan | June 13, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

LORDSTOWN

School officials say the district will lose 20 percent of its revenue if the state eliminates the remainder of the tangible personal property reimbursements it gets.

Superintendent Terry Armstrong said at a news event Monday that students delivered 2,600 letters to state officials a couple weeks ago urging them to continue the funding at the same rate. But Armstrong also wants the public to send the same message.

A final decision must be made by June 30, when Gov. John Kasich is required to sign the next two-year budget.

Some of Lordtown’s TPP funding already has been eliminated, but it still gets $1.6 million annually, Armstrong said. It is one of 120 school districts in Ohio that receive the funding.

TPP was charged to businesses in Ohio, but state officials eliminated it in 2005 under Gov. Bob Taft to help with business development.

At the time, state officials said all government bodies and schools that received the money would be reimbursed 100 percent through other revenues.

Eventually, they began to phase out the reimbursements anyway, Armstrong said.

“We just want them to keep that promise,” he said.

When a member of the audience asked how state officials justify breaking a promise, Armstrong said they usually indicate that the promise was made by a “different Legislature,” and none of those legislators are still in office because of term limits.

“I don’t see how we will be able to operate the way we do now with this 20 percent” cut, Lordstown Board of Education member Tracie Allen said. “If you take 20 percent away from your personal budget, it’s going to make some changes to your everyday life.”

State Rep. Glenn Holmes, D-65th of McDonald, said the reimbursements are being eliminated through complicated formulas that take into account the economic health of the government bodies and school districts getting it.

Holmes said the formula takes into account that the school district will get about $1 million annually in new revenue from the Lordstown Energy Center power plant that is being constructed.

Armstrong said Lordstown has the second-lowest tax rate in the county. “We want to keep it that way,” he said.