By PAMELA WILLIS

Voters are down to their last days to decide whether to approve Issue 5 on the May 2 ballot.

Issue 5 is the 6.25-mill combined levy request for Worthington City Schools, with 5 mills as a continuing operating levy request and 1.25 mills as a five-year permanent-improvement levy request.

If approved by voters, the levy will cost homeowners an additional $191 annually per $100,000 in property valuation and would generate $12.1 million per year for the school district, with $2.3 million per year of those funds dedicated to permanent improvement.

Treasurer Jonathan Boyd said without funds from the levy request, the district could face a budget deficit of close to $23 million by June 2009.

Voters last approved a levy request in May 2004, for 6.85 mills.

If the new levy request is approved, the revenue is expected to fund operations for two years, Boyd said.

Campaign officials point out that Worthington is the largest district in the state to receive an "Excellent" rating on the state report card for the past five years, and that the district has shown fiscal responsibility by making more than $22 million in cuts over the last five years.

A community faction called Educate Worthington has wondered if the district can sustain a biennial pattern of levy requests, especially since Boyd indicated that a levy of 10 mills might be needed in 2008.

Bruce Bernard, who heads the Worthington Area Chamber of Commerce advocacy committee, said his organization went through a two-month process of polling its members and analyzing Issue 5.

"The leaders of the Worthington Area Chamber of Commerce have gone on record as supporting the passage of the Worthington School District's levy on the May 2 ballot," Bernard said.

Bernard said the information-gathering process included informing members about the issue and discussing the issue with school officials. He said more than half of the respondents favored passage of the issue.

According to the survey conducted by the committee, 52 percent of the Chamber of Commerce respondents would vote in favor of the levy and 33 percent voted against it. Fourteen percent were undecided.

There were mixed feelings among survey respondents on how well the school district is managed, how wisely it spends its money or if rising school taxes are a factor in attraction and retention of businesses, but the high quality of Worthington schools was perceived as having a positive impact on the business community, survey results showed.

"Nobody likes to raise taxes, but we felt that quality schools are good for the Worthington business community and school officials made a good case for the need at this time," Bernard said.

Mike Alfred and John Herrington of Educate Worthington said the district decided to translate health-care savings into teacher raises in the last teachers contract, instead of using those savings for operating costs.

"Maybe some of those savings could have used for new student programs or to minimize the next levy request," Herrington said.

Superintendent Melissa Conrath said the school board purposely kept the levy request as low as possible to respond to public concerns over higher taxes. She said she is optimistic that 10 mills won't be needed in two years.

"Two years ago, when voters approved the 6.85-mill request, the board expected to be back in two more years for what they thought would be 8 mills," Conrath said last week. "That didn't happen -- our levy request is 5 mills, with 1.25 mills as a permanent-improvement request ... Treasurers are always conservative and must overestimate expenses and underestimate revenue so districts don't run out of money."

"It would be my hope and expectation," Boyd said last week, "that there will be additional savings, which right now I can't identify, with the possibility of additional revenues, which would result in lower millage than 10 mills needed in 2008."