Nov 17, 2015 By Christine Haines chaines@heraldstandard.Com 3 min read

The school budget process in Ohio is perhaps closest to what is being proposed for Pennsylvania through Senate Bill 909.

Unlike New York voters, Ohio voters do not need to approve routine school district budgets. They do, however, vote on special tax levies. About half of all school funding comes from the state. Ohio’s system was revamped in 1972 to counter inflationary increases in the property tax base for school districts through reassessment. The continuing property tax levy is the general tax assessment that goes on indefinitely to provide local funding for schools. There are a number of special levies that can be added through voter approval to fund projects for a specific period of time, generally one to five years before needing to go before a public vote again.

“Typically it takes three times to get a tax levy passed,” said Damon Asbury, the director of legislative services for the Ohio School Boards Association. “We did have elections four times a year. They just took out the February special elections. If you get a 51 percent vote, that’s considered a landslide.”

Asbury said it’s difficult to get tax levies passed in rural areas and poor urban areas.

“What’s easiest to pass is a renewal of an emergency levy,” Asbury said.

Emergency tax levies are for a set dollar amount, not a millage rate, so the tax can go up or down depending on the assessed valuation of the school district. Such levies can be renewed for up to 10 years according to the Ohio School Boards Association publication “Making Sense Out of School Financing.”

Since the levy system was put into place in 1972, through 2013, an average of 50.2 percent of the levies have been approved by voters. Asbury said that even with the state covering 75-90 percent of new construction costs, some districts have been unable to get local approval for the remaining expense, meaning new buildings could not be constructed.

“Our school building program came out of a court case that our school system relied too heavily on local funding,” Asbury said. “Poor school districts get more in state money, but they have less in local support, so the money has to go to basic education.”

Asbury said Ohio school districts must also prepare a five-year financial plan, preparing long-range budget forecasts. Districts must also sign a certificate that they can afford what has been approved.

Asbury said Ohio also permits districts to offset some of their property tax with an income tax, a practice that must also receive the approval of the public once every 10 years.