Let’s talk about levies. I never cease to be amazed at the number of people who are clueless about how they work. For those of you who get it, bear with me or skip this blog.
First you need to know a levy can expire or be continuing. A continuing levy never expires. The only way we can stop paying on a continuing levy is to put it back on the ballot for voter removal. I don’t know of any school district willing to do this, so obviously a regular citizen would have to take it upon him or herself to do it. A pretty daunting task for Joe Schmoe. Needless to say it rarely if ever happens. Next we have expiring levies. They are put on the ballot for approval with a set amount of years. Usually 5 years. All CF levies are either continuing (3) or expiring 5 year (3). We also have one, 20-year bond issue passed in 1998 due to expire in 2017.
Now it gets hairy. I am going to use the last new levy CF passed as my example. In May of 2005 the voters of CF passed a 7.9 mill levy. We now find ourselves in May of 2007 and are actually paying 7.3 mills. Huh? See back in 1976 the State of Ohio passed a law that said the dollar amount passed at the time of a school levy will stay that dollar amount. So forget about those confusing mills for a minute. Think of it this way. If a new levy passes today, and because of the value of your home, your actual new tax amount is $250 per year. Next year your home value rises (hopefully) but you still pay $250. After 5 years you are still paying $250 on the levy but your home value, it is assumable has gone up. Now one of many things can happen. There is simple, confusing and confusinger. The district can let the levy expire. Simple. Hah, fat chance! They can ask for a renewal. A renewal will simply keep your rate at that $250 per year. You’re just renewing what you’re already paying. They always back this one up with the familiar “it’s not a new tax” mantra. But really it is a new tax because I voted for a 5 year expiring tax. What they really should say is “we didn’t ask for a large enough or long enough tax last time.” The other common thing districts ask for is a replacement levy. A replacement levy should really be called a restorative levy. Now the amount you pay goes up. The county takes a look at the current value of your house. We already know it has gone up in value over the last 5 years. So now your $250 is $325.
Now I don’t want you to think these are the only things a district can do. There are many variations of the above that can happen that I will cover in “Levies for Dummies part 2”.
A quick myth I want to cover is the renters don’t pay property taxes myth. Surprisingly to me many renters believe this myth as well as the many property owners who tell me to stick it in my ear when I attempt to debunk this one. Renters pay property tax. It’s as simple as that. I will break it down in simplistic terms. Pretend you own your home and three other houses in CF that you rent. A new tax levy has just passed. All four of the homes you own are valued at exactly $100,000. Your new tax amount is $250 per home per year. Now if you are a really nice person with a trust fund from Uncle Bill Gates, you write a check to the county each year and pay all your taxes yourself. But if you are a normal person trying to survive in this world, you are now going to raise the rent in your three rentals. Probably $50 per month per house. Renters usually take a harder hit when a tax levy passe because not many landlords only raise the rent for the amount of the tax. They round up. They didn’t have new math. I know, I rented here for 5 years. If you don’t believe me, ask any of our local landlords. We have plenty from what I’m reading and seeing.
Now I’m going to give you some gobbledygook. But I think these are numbers that are important for you to know. Our district will “earn” almost fourteen and a half million dollars for the January through June 2007 period. This is only from local money. Property taxes. The rest comes from the State and Federal coffers, which is also your hard earned dollars in different tax forms. To give you another example of how millage amounts are actually disappearing revenue for a district we must go back in time. Back in 1976, all CF current continuing levies were combined into one giant 31.8 mill levy. Wow! This amount was the entire local contribution for the next 8 years. But as you know from the example above, the cost of doing business went up yet the money the district collected remained the same. That same 31.8 mill levy is now actually a 7.3 mill levy. What was 100% of our local money 30 years ago is now 21% of our money. Or look at it this way: Imagine trying to live today on the same amount of money you made 30 years ago. That’s what the case would be if we did not have the 6 other levies and a bond issue on our tax bill right now.
I’m not promoting either side. I just think it is important that people understand the entire scope of the problem when voting. My personal feelings are a sales tax or earned income tax would take care of part of the problem. At least then if money were approved by the voters, it could grow with inflation. I know many spending problems exist within the walls of education that need fixing too. But give me a break. One blog at a time!
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15 comments:
Why didn't they just let this tax expire as they said they would five years ago and just ask us for a little more money back in May 2005 when we overwhelming pass a levy to save our schools from the financial crisis that our Board put us in back then?
Well it looks like most of the folks wanted to pass the levy. Maybe some of us are all wet.
Wake up folks! How many people thought, "Well I don't feel like going out today and this isn't going to raise my taxes anyway," so they just stayed home and didn't go vote?
Beyond that, did any of you really looked at how many (or few) voters actually got out and voted? Overall, roughly 15%. Even Silver Lake had less than 25%. Not too impressive. And for all of you who think that the levy wouldn't have passed if it weren't for Silver Lake, guess again. It passed in the Falls as well.
I guess contrary to popular belief, the Falls can pass levies without the help of the Village. They can probably elect their representation as well. Don't ever forget that there are more in the city than the village, and there's power in numbers.
What do you mean "wake up"? If everybody voted the levy still may have passed. There is no point in trying to make ourselves feel better by making excuses. We lost this battle but not the war.
The main point is once again lack of effort by the people of the Falls, low turn out. If the same happens this fall then things will stay the same. Are we just lazy white trash?
I know many people for just forgot to go vote, after all it was the only item on the ballot.
We should keep an eye on what happens in Stow, you know how baddly their children are going to suffer from their rejection.
Those that "forgot" or are too lazy to get out an vote have no right to complain. If people really want change then they must take some of the responsibility to make that change happen. We need to do a better job of informing people and we need to vote in a BOE in the Fall that will see to it that things don't reamin as they are now. As fallsbigdaddy said, we may have lost this battle but we have not lost the war. Let this serve as a wake up call!
Silver Lake is organized and has been for some time. They are ready to take complete control of our school system. Mrs Dunphy surely will run again and wonder boy Jon Turny had pulled petitions to put his name on the ballot, yet again (could the 3rd time be the charm, and if these 2 were to win we will have 4 board members from Silve Lake). There are 2 seats on the board open for the November election and who from the Falls wants to step up to the plate. We don't even support the 2 members that are fighting so hard for us. Silver Lake brings a crowd to every meeting and they snarl at Ms Patterson and Mrs Gunter. Where is the crowd from the Falls? It's time to start showing up and supporting the ones that are working so hard for us.
Jon T said is his May 1 blog post and I quote, “With that being said, I would like to address the speculation that my comments at the April 18, Board Meeting were supposed to be some sort of launching pad for me to again run for school board. I would like to end that speculation by saying that I WILL NOT be running for the Board this Fall, period.” Yet, he has taken out petitions to run for BOE? So much for being a man true to his word! Is this the kind of person you want on YOUR BOE? Where is his personal integrity?
I thought Turney said he wasn't going to run. If he lied about that what else might he have lied about?
bigdaddy, some people think that the positive votes on the levy are also an endorsement of the triumvirate. People need to wake up to the fact that might not be true, but if it is shouldn't we do something to change that?
"He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, til at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions."
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I cannot trust somebody who does not tell the truth, how about you?
It was too nice of a day to vote. Everyone that bitches says they vote. But I suspect otherwise. All the do gooders vote. It's part of their training. So of course levys pass. Especially renewals. I actually had a woman tell me she didn't think the taxes were bad but her mortgage company keeps raising her payment! She didn't realize the 2005 new levy is what raised her house payment! That is the mentality of the people in our community!! Here's another beautiful example: A name was on the Summit County delinquent tax list. This family also had a levy sign in their yard. They could not pay their own taxes yet they had a levy sign. The stupidity overwhelms me. I suppose they also thought it was the mortgage companies fault. Kellie's right. Until you educate the apathetic public, this cycle will continue. They just don't get it.
As for Turney running, the kids like him and they are a strong voter base in November elections. Gen Xers are lazy. I guess it's the result of boomers spoiling us and thousands of labor jobs leaving Ohio. But Turney needs to own a home first, or at least move out of mom and dads house for Christs' sake!
Actually, the Board of Elections needs to look into the fact that some voters were not permitted to vote. At Richardson Elementary voters were told they couldn't vote because classes were in session.
Mike Penta: Did anybody report that to the Board of Elections?
Taxpayer,
I don't know if any complaints were made or not.
There was a PTA meeting that same night at Richardson and members were asked to complain to the BoE about the school being a polling location when school was in session. Nobody seemed to be concerned that voters were being turned away.
Please tell me how you think hiring outside companies to come in and do the work for the school systerm will save money! The companies do not do this for free! They are in the business to make money. Plus you have no control over what type of employee you will have! I do not know about you, but I do not care to have undesirables in the buildings or on the busses with our children. Plus you must think of the idea of theft! All the expensive equipment, in our buildings willnot be safe either! How can someone on the school board be so anti school system?
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