Treasurer
recommends property tax over income tax
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Residents filled the seats
set up for Monday's public discussion of Worthington City Schools District's
upcoming levy request.
Treasurer Jonathan Boyd
said last week that an operating levy request of 5.25 mills would needed to offset a projected budget deficit of nearly $23
million by the end of fiscal year 2009.
Boyd said the school board must
decide on the type and amount of a levy request and pass a resolution of
necessity and a resolution to proceed by Feb. 16 to put a levy request on the
May 2 ballot.
Boyd opened the meeting by
outlining the financial needs of the district.
"If we look at a
two-year operating levy, we will need $22,973,000 to balance the budget in the
next 21/2 years," Boyd said. "We will experience a deficit of that
amount by the end of fiscal year 2009."
Boyd said an operating levy
request in the amount of 5 to 5.25 mills would be needed to offset the deficit.
"My recommendation is
5.25 mills, because a 5-mill levy amount might not be enough to ensure we make
it through the two-year period," Boyd said.
Voters approved a 6.85-mill
continuing operating levy request in March 2004, which Boyd said was expected
to generate enough operating funds to last two years.
Boyd's new five-year
financial forecast revealed expenditures exceeding revenues by the end of
fiscal year 2006.
Actual revenues for fiscal
year 2004-05 were $107,169,784, with total expenditures at $100,954,231.
Projected revenues for
fiscal year 2005-06 are $100,109,444, with expenditures projected to be
$105,496,920.
Ending cash balances would
keep the district in the black until the end of fiscal year 2008, where Boyd
listed a projected deficit of $5.9 million, which would jump to more than $22.9
million by the end of 2009, without added revenue.
Boyd also talked briefly
about the capital needs of the district, some of which were listed in a handout
given at the forum.
Board members had recently
discussed the need for a possible permanent-improvement levy request that could
be combined with an operating levy request or placed on a separate ballot.
"There is a
significant amount of pent-up need in the area of capital improvements,"
Boyd said.
Listed under
"technology replacement" on the handout was the fact that 71.7
percent of the computers in the district were five years old or older, that
"instructional materials accompanying purchased textbooks required new
operating systems" and that "purchased software no longer works on
old computers."
The estimated cost of
updating the district's computers every five years is $1 million per year, as
listed on the handout.
Other capital improvements
listed as "priority" were roof repairs at Worthington Hills and
Worthington Estates elementary schools and the Dow Nelson Fieldhouse; carpet
replacement at Bluffsview,
The priority repairs are
estimated at $1,638,405.
Boyd briefly explained the
types of levy requests board members might put on the ballot, including a
property tax, a replacement tax or an income tax.
Boyd recommended a regular
property tax, because a replacement tax meant businesses that paid tangible
taxes would not pay additional taxes.
"An income tax might
ease the burden of people on fixed incomes, but because businesses are not
required to pay an income tax, residents would have to pay 100 percent of the
income tax, instead of 48 percent of a property tax," Boyd said. "It
would also take 18 months to collect a full year of revenue for an income
tax."
Boyd said last week the
district would lose $1 million in tangible taxes in a two-year period with an
income tax.