By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Richard Strow thought leaving the Bowling Green City School District was a good idea – until he did the math.
So Strow, of Milton Township, has formed a political action committee to get the word out to fellow citizens that their taxes will increase substantially if their property is transferred to Patrick Henry School District.
He isn’t alone. In neighboring Liberty Township, efforts are underway to create a PAC to get information out to residents there about the effort to transfer almost all of the township property to Elmwood School District.
There are eight petitions on the Aug. 4 special election ballot – asking voters to approve transferring their land to various school districts like Patrick Henry, McComb, Elmwood, Otsego and Eastwood.
There are approximately 1,025 voters who will be able to cast ballots to stay in or leave Bowling Green City School District. Since the petitions required signatures of just 10% of voters in the last gubernatorial election, and no public notice is required, many residents have been surprised to find their homes are on the ballot to secede from BG Schools.
Originally, it looked like a good deal to Strow, who signed a petition to allow residents of Milton Township to vote to leave BG Schools for Patrick Henry School District.
“We were told this would be a very good deal for us,” Strow said. “That Patrick Henry would be better than Bowling Green.”
For Strow, the petition was about more than money.
“I really wanted to send a message to the school board that there are people out here in the country who are not happy with how things have gone the last several years,” he said.
Like many, Strow signed the petition a second time since the original petition had an error.
“I flat out was pissed off when the first one was found incorrect,” he said. “They screwed it up right off the bat. I found that terribly embarrassing.”
Then Strow started asking questions. Despite the sales pitch that the move to Patrick Henry School District would mean less taxes, Strow discovered the opposite was true for those with W-2 income – the vast majority of Milton Township residents.
“This is an extremely bad deal for people in Milton Township,” he said.
Patrick Henry’s income tax is 3.5 times higher than Bowling Green School District. Strow was told the reduction in property tax at Patrick Henry would make up for the income tax increase. However, it turns out that Patrick Henry’s property tax is also higher than Bowling Green’s.
“That’s when it really sunk it,” Strow said, surmising that the petitions weren’t about benefiting local taxpayers, but more about a grudge held by some of those who passed around the petitions.
“What’s the price of spite?” Strow asked.
Though Strow had hoped to make a point signing the petitions, he found the cost too steep.
And as for the warning from petition organizers that Bowling Green district taxes will go up soon, Strow noted that all districts are struggling with the costs of COVID-19.
“COVID doesn’t only affect Bowling Green,” he said.
So now Strow and others in Milton Township are trying to get the word out – first to people who have no idea that their properties are on the ballot, and second to inform people that leaving BG Schools is a bad bargain.
“There is an organized effort in Milton Township to get information out to the public,” he said. On Friday, Strow filed paperwork with the Wood County Board of Elections to create the Milton Township Concerned Citizens PAC.
The same is happening in Liberty Township, he said.
“There are people who have stepped up,” he said.
The PAC has a “true grassroots community organizing plan,” of going door-to-door, handing out information about the petitions and providing people with absentee ballot applications, Strow said.
Eight petitions will appear on the Aug. 4 ballot. Following is an estimate of the number of voters and parcels covered in each petition:
- Center Township to Elmwood – map is 17 parcels, with 7 voters.
- Center Township to Eastwood – map is 230 parcels, with 90 voters.
- Jackson Township to McComb – map is 13 parcels, with 3 voters.
- Liberty Township to Elmwood – map is 831 parcels, with 397 voters.
- Milton Township #1 to Patrick Henry – map is 61 parcels, with 19 voters.
- Milton Township #2 to Patrick Henry – map is 1,138 parcels, with 467 voters.
- Plain Township to Otsego – map is 116 parcels, with 41 voters.
- Henry County to Patrick Henry – map is 3 parcels.
The following link shows maps and addresses of those areas on the ballot: https://www.co.wood.oh.us/BOE/2020_Aug%20Ballot%20Issues.html
Since there are no other issues on the Aug. 4 ballot, there will be just one polling location open in Wood County at the Bowling Green Church of the Nazarene, 1855 Gorrill Road, Bowling Green. Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The voter registration deadline is July 6, at 9 p.m.
It’s come as an unwelcome surprise to several landowners in the Bowling Green City School District that without their consent, their properties were included in petitions to secede from the district.
Bowling Green Superintendent Francis Scruci said he has been contacted by parents whose properties have been swept up in the petition process.
“We will accept open enrollment,” he said. “The kids have nothing to do with this, but they’re going to be the ones affected.”
Wood County Auditor Matt Oestreich said his office has received questions from residents who did not know their properties were included in the petitions to change school districts.
“We’ve definitely had some calls,” Oestreich said.
The auditor’s office is helping residents determine how changing school districts will affect their tax bills. In many cases, the residents’ taxes will actually go up.
The Bowling Green Board of Education will hold a special meeting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., for the board to hear a presentation by David Conley, of Rockmill Financial Consulting, regarding the impact of the territory transfer petitions. Action may be taken.
The board members will meet remotely, with the public able to watch via YouTube: https://youtu.be/-kAJvpp6GNI
“This would leave a gaping hole in the financial structure of Bowling Green schools,” Conley told the school board about the petitions last month. “You’re losing some of the most valuable real estate.”
The school district, which will be required to pay for the election, could lose up to 220 students and $2 million annually from the areas exiting to other districts.
The remaining residents of the Bowling Green district would then have to replenish the lost revenues – possibly requiring a 15% increase in taxes just to maintain the status quo, Conley said.
Conley presented a chart with numbers from the Wood County Auditor’s Office that compared taxes in the districts where the petitioners are asking to join. Based on the median home value and income, those annual taxes are:
- Patrick Henry: $2,942
- McComb: $2,475
- Elmwood: $2,268
- Otsego: $2,236
- Eastwood: $2,137
- Bowling Green: $1,893
Conley pointed out that the properties leaving Bowling Green’s district will still be required to pay bonds that they remain committed to for BGCS, as well as bonds for the school district that they would be joining.
The petitions were circulated by Grant Chamberlain, Richard Chamberlain, Nolan Chamberlain, Dan Wilson, Brian Smith, Scott Apple, Devin Dauterman, Josh Nutter, Jennifer Adler and Jeff Avery.
Some of the petitioners represent a portion of the agricultural community and have been outspoken about what they see as an over-reliance on property taxes for the school district.
The same petitioners were also strong opponents to Bowling Green City School District’s plan to build one elementary school, stating that smaller neighborhood schools were preferable. However, three of the districts they are petitioning to enter – Eastwood, Elmwood and Otsego – all have consolidated school buildings.
