Youngstown schools levy falls to defeat

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New tax issues found it tough going in Mahoning County on Tuesday.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The margin was closer this time, but the Youngstown Board of Education was again unable to persuade voters to approve a 9.5-mill tax levy to help erase a $15 million budget deficit.

Voters turned down the five-year tax issue by a margin of just more than 1,800 votes, according to unofficial totals reported by the Mahoning County Board of Elections on Tuesday.

The same levy, which would have produced about $5 million annually in new revenue, was rejected by a 2,000-vote margin exactly one year ago.

The levy issue isn't going to disappear, said Dr. Wendy Webb, superintendent of schools. She predicted that the state fiscal oversight commission that has been controlling district finances since the state placed Youngstown in fiscal emergency in November 2006 "will direct us to put it back up again."

It was a tough night for new tax levies in Mahoning County, although most renewal and replacement levies passed.

Voters in Boardman Township turned down a 4.1-mill operating levy. Voters in the Springfield school system rejected a combination of 4.3 mills for a 28-year bond issue for school construction, 0.5 mills for 23 years to maintain those new facilities and 2 mills for a 28-year bond issue to remodel other buildings.

Webb said she understands that voters are "taxed out" and some who might have supported the levy felt their votes don't count — and so they didn't turn out to cast their ballots on the city school issue.

The district will continue to look for ways to reduce expenses. It has already trimmed about $17 million and eliminated 250 jobs. But the need for additional revenue won't go away, she said.

The Rev. Michael Write, school board president who lost a re-election bid Tuesday, said it would make no sense to come back to voters with a smaller levy request as the deficit will continue to grow.

He said he is appalled that voters recently approved a tax levy to put people in jail by expanding jail operations, but a levy to keep young people from possibly entering that type of situation has failed twice.

Board member Jacqueline Taylor, chairman of the board's finance committee, said she was extremely disappointed with the vote results. The board is getting three new members as a result of Tuesday's election, and the current members will have to see what they want to do on the levy issue, she said.

Boardman Administrator Jason Loree said trustees will have to decide how to restructure township services.

Unofficial totals from Tuesday show 58 percent of voters against the levy and 42 percent in favor.

Layoffs are likely, and Loree said he expected those to be reflected in the 2008 budget. "Our budget is going to have to reflect the revenue that's coming in," he said.

The levy would have raised about $4 million annually for all township departments.

If trustees decide to return to the ballot, Loree said he will recommend they ask voters to approve levies specific to a department rather than a general operating issue.

Loree didn't have a theory about why voters overwhelmingly rejected the levy. He believes the township did a good job of getting the message of the levy's importance out to the public. Voters sent a message that they didn't want to pay for the services with the levy, he said.

Tuesday was the first time in 12 years that the township had asked voters for additional money through a levy. The township has been able to fund its operations, which have increased during that time, with inheritance taxes. But that money has been dwindling. Changes in the state's tangible personal property tax and the eventual phase-out of the estate tax have added to the township's financial difficulties.

In Trumbull County, Warren voters approved the 0.5 percent income tax renewal, making the tax permanent. It had been levied on a temporary basis for three years, generating $4.6 million annually. If the issue had failed, city officials said two of the three fire houses would have been closed and the number of police officers reduced.

With passage, three additional full-time police officers will be hired, Mayor Michael J. O'Brien said.

In Brookfield Township, voters approved a 7.4-mill bond issue to raise $11 million of the $31 million needed to replace the district's three buildings with a new K-12 facility. The 28-year bond issue will cost the owner of a $50,000 home about $113 more a year.

Liberty voters approved a 1.5-mill police renewal levy and a new 2-mill fire levy but turned down a new 1.25-mill police communications levy.

In Columbiana County, voters in Leetonia schools rejected a 6.5-mill emergency levy, and the county Board of Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities found that a new 2-mill operating cost levy was also rejected.

A 1-mill school improvement levy for the Columbiana County Career Center was turned down.

Contributors: Staff writers Denise Dick, Ed Runyan and Dave Wilkinson.

gwin@vindy.com

Wednesday, November 7, 2007