Y-town voters will face levy again in March

Print Story

Email to Friend

Discuss this story

The district is looking at
an additional $4 million in
spending reductions.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Voters will be asked for a third time to approve a 9.5-mill property tax levy the city school district says it needs to help overcome a budget deficit.

The school board unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday to put an emergency levy on the March 2008 ballot that would generate $5,291,510 in new annual revenue for five years.

That amount is expected to be certified as a 9.5-mill tax levy by the Mahoning County auditor, said Carolyn Funk, district treasurer.

She advised that, if the levy passes, the school board should then borrow the full amount of first year revenue ($5,291,510) from the state so that the school district could end the current fiscal year about $1 million in the black.

The state will take its money back out of Youngstown's annual subsidies over a five-year period, she said.

Youngstown is already paying back $15 million it borrowed from the state in May to cover a $15 million budget deficit.

Board members expressed concern about where the district will be even if the levy passes, and, perhaps more importantly, if it fails. If the levy fails, the deficit this year will run more than $4 million, Funk said.

Even if it passes, it won't be enough to eliminate the deficit. Additional spending reductions must be made, she said.

The district has cut about $17 million in annual spending, largely through the elimination of 250 jobs, and the board is looking at a number of additional reductions, both in employees and facilities, that are expected to cut spending by an additional $4 million a year.

Details of those reductions are to be presented Thursday to the state fiscal oversight commission which has been regulating district finances since the state placed it in fiscal emergency a year ago.

The plan includes the elimination of five administrative posts (including some central office personnel), the merging of the Alpha and Athena gender schools for boys and girls into a single building (while retaining the gender separation), downsizing the district's 15-member trades union employees by seven spots, closing the central office building at 20 W. Wood St., closing the bus garage, which the board leases, and downsizing the district warehouse.

Dr. Wendy Webb, superintendent, said no teacher cuts are in the mix of reductions, pointing out that the oversight commission has directed that additional be made in noneducational positions first.

The district has cut 145 teaching positions in the past two years.

Some of the new proposed cuts aren't going over well with employees. About 10 of the trades union employees (electricians, painters, plumbers and carpenters) showed up at Tuesday's board meeting to protest the reductions in their ranks, questioning how the district can operate efficiently with such a large cut in those positions. They also asked how the district can save money if it has to rely on hiring outside contractors to do work that current employees now do.

gwin@vindy.com

Wednesday, December 12, 2007