By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The financial forecast for Bowling Green City Schools went from bad to worse, if all the petitioned property ends up leaving for neighboring districts.
Last month, the numbers were grim, estimated at a $3 million annual loss to BG Schools. On Tuesday evening, the new numbers put the loss at closer to $5.6 million a year.
“That particular action has consequences for the Bowling Green School District,” financial consultant David Conley said of the petitions to transfer property to other districts.
Voters in the petitioning areas will vote on Aug. 4 whether to stay in Bowling Green or transfer to other districts.
If they all vote to leave, BG Schools will see $5.6 million “evaporate,” Conley said.
Based on new tax information and the fact that the Ohio Department of Taxation ruled in favor of school districts over Rover pipeline’s appeal, Conley presented new numbers to the board.
If all the petitioning areas leave the district, the following losses are projected:
- $2 million in property taxes.
- $260,000 in income taxes.
- $3,360,000 in pipeline taxes.
“That’s a significant amount,” Conley said of the pipeline tax loss. “That’s a big punch in the gut.”
The district could not suffer that loss without turning to its remaining taxpayers to fill the hole, he said.
But with the new numbers, the hole is even deeper. Instead of the estimated 4.5 mills needed, it could take as much as 8.54 mills to restore the loss of revenue.
“That’s to simply keep the district at the same funding level,” Conley said.
For the remaining taxpayers in the district, that would cost about $487 more a year for the owner of a home at the median value of $162,900.
Board member Tracy Hovest pointed out another loss to the community – with families and children being transferred to neighboring districts.
“We would be losing very important members of the Bowling Green City School community,” she said. “We value them. It’s important they stay with us.”
There are approximately 1,025 registered voters in the eight petitioned areas. There are about 10,000 taxpayers living in the BG school district.
“The law allows for as few as 513 voters to impact more than 10,000 voters,” Conley said.
“You have an entire community that has no voice” in a decision that will greatly affect them, he said of those citizens not in the petitioned areas.
Conley said the intent of the law allowing petitioners to secede from one district to join another was to allow students to enroll in other districts.
Bowling Green and the other districts being petitioned to join all have open enrollment policies, so the petition effort is “simply unwarranted and indefensible,” Conley said.
“They don’t need to do this to have access to other school districts,” he said last month.
The school board voted unanimously last month to seek a law change that would require township residents seceding from the district to continue paying taxes to the school district for another decade.
Conley suggested the law change is needed to protect the remaining residents of the school district.
“The current law does nothing to protect remaining taxpayers,” Conley said. “I believe it’s important for the board to seek a law change.”
Because the proposed change in the law could not be penned prior to the Aug. 4 election, Conley suggested that the change be retroactive.
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
In May, 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 under current law, 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.
He also noted Tuesday evening that voters should be aware that some of the districts being petitioned to join are close to the “20-mill floor.” In the Bowling Green district, if property value goes up, the taxes for operations go down. But in districts at the 20-mill floor, the taxes continue upward.
Conley also pointed out that families using the EdChoice scholarships from the Bowling Green district will no longer have access to that funding.
“That’s something parents need to be aware of,” he said.
Scruci and Conley thanked the rural residents who have started grassroots campaigns against the petitioned property transfers.
“There’s a lot of good people that are going to be affected by this, through no fault of their own,” Scruci said.
