Prepared Notes for Board Meeting – Levy
Marc A. Schare
Let me start by taking a
moment to thank the administrators for generously donating thousands of dollars
apiece to the general fund of the district.
Tonight, we come together
to reach consensus on a levy decision that will have a profound effect on the
future of Worthington Schools. We face a financial projection that demonstrates
that taxing even another $500/year for the average household is insufficient
for supporting the districts spending plan after the next 3 or 4 years. We have
an even worse political reality. In correspondences across the ideological
spectrum, our constituents have told us to get a handle on district spending.
We’ve been told in letters and emails that absent a change in compensation
packages, a levy will not be passed and we’ve been warned by the overwhelming
defeat – 59% to 41% of the Columbus City Income Tax in the Columbus precincts
of our district that there is little appetite or ability to pass tax increases
of any kind. Tonight, the message from constituents could not be clearer – they
want spending reform in this district, they want it now and they want it with
the smallest possible impact on programs.
There is little doubt that
the economy has played a huge role here. Retirement savings have been cut by
40%, retirement income in the form of CD’s has been slashed to almost nothing, The
CBO says social security will been frozen for the next three years, health care
costs for seniors are skyrocketing, unemployment in Ohio is escalating, home
prices are no longer providing the equity to allow people to live on debt and
even among the working, salaries and benefits are being cut or frozen. It is
small wonder that most people concede that a property
tax increase at this time is a tough sell.
So, what
to do. A few weeks back I floated
the idea of a 3.5 to 3.9 mill levy that would support the district through 2012
and, in conjunction with reductions in the rate of spending increase make the
size of the next levy manageable – perhaps in the area of 7.4 mills. That plan
is viable only if Worthington Schools commits to a
phased in program of systemic change that allows our expenses to increase at a
rate which the community believes can be supported. Lacking such systemic
change, the day of reckoning may be extended with a small levy, but it cannot
be avoided. The main advantage of the smaller levy is that it might actually
pass.
The other levy under
consideration is the incremental levy. The main difference between my approach
and the incremental levy is that the incremental levy gives the district one
more year to plan for and implement systemic change, however, the smaller of
the incremental levys provided by the administration provides for 6.9 mills as
a continuing amount which would be, I’m sure, comforting for the district but
not so much for the taxpayer that would see property taxes increase each year. It
is a gamble that people will focus on the
For me, I will reiterate
that so long as the focus of our discussion is on revenue generation options,
it almost doesn’t matter what size and type of levy we choose because over
time, the amount collected must, by definition, be the same – the amount
necessary to pay for the districts spending plan. In all of these options, the
spending plan calls for a continuation of annualized salary increases in the 2
to 7% range, annualized health care increases of 13% in perpetuity and more or
less status quo in other expenditures. These expenditures call for a 4.7%
increase this year, another 4.8% next year and then 5.2, 5.3 and 5.5% increases
through FY14. This is, in my opinion, unsustainable. It should be noted that at
least two parts of this are not our fault. The Governor’s mandate for all day
Kindergarten has a dramatic effect on the budget starting in FY12 and while I
disagree with the treasurer’s assumption that community school tuition will
rise by 20% annually in perpetuity, clearly, it will continue to rise by a
non-trivial amount and it’s not unreasonable to assume it will consume well
over 25% of our state aid by the end of the forecast period.
Nevertheless, whether caused
by ill-advised mandates or factors within the district’s control, the
unmistakable message I’ve heard from constituents is that this spending plan is
unsustainable and without reform, a levy will not pass. I see no reform in this
plan. The governor mandates free all day Kindergarten as an unfunded mandate,
we need to cut somewhere else. Senate Republicans want unlimited autism scholarships, we need to cut somewhere else, not just if a
levy fails but as a matter of survival. We cannot continue at this run rate in
perpetuity and the longer we wait to start addressing the problem, the harder
it is going to get.