I am writing in support of the 5.55 mill bond issue levy to construct a new Bowling Green Senior High School. I have lived in Bowling Green for over 50 years and raised my family here. My son and daughter both completed their primary and secondary education in Bowling Green Schools and I currently have a grandson attending Bowling Green Middle School and a grandson who is a senior at the high school. Our family experience with the Bowling Green school system has been excellent, but our senior high school facility is aging and is no longer adequate.
Bowling Green is a wonderful place to live and raise a family. We have excellent City and County Government in place. Bowling Green enjoys an exceptional park system and offers great recreational, cultural and sports activities to its citizens in partnership with Bowling Green State University. We have a great public library and good, clean industries and businesses who have elected to locate in our town and surrounding areas. Our school facilities however, have not kept pace.
If we want Bowling Green to continue to attract good families and grow economically, we need to pass this levy and build a new senior high school facility we can be proud of, that will give our students an up-to date facility that they need to prosper academically, and to complete one of the necessary components of our fine community.
I believe our Bowling Green School System has excellent teachers and administrators in place and with our new Superintendent, Ted Haselman, excellent and very open leadership in charge. The Superintendent and the Board of Education could not have been more open and informative about the need for a new school. They have scheduled numerous public forums and meetings to inform the public about the need for a new high school and made the designs and plans for the new facility transparent to everyone. No one likes to have their taxes increase but if we don’t do it now, it will only cost more in the future and we will have failed to support our community by providing one of the best and most competitive school systems possible.
A word on the tax millage. This levy of 5.55 mills is for the sole purpose of issuing bonds to raise the 73 million dollars to build a new high school, and if approved can only be spent for that purpose. The law requires that the School Board first determine the amount of money needed for the project. The board must then ask the County Auditor to determine the millage necessary to raise that amount of money. The Auditor determines the millage amount by looking at the ‘tax assessment value’ of all the taxable real property located within the School District. Tax Assessment value is by law set at 35% of the Auditor’s estimated appraised value of the real estate in the district. The Auditor’s estimated appraised value and the auditor’s ‘tax assessment’ value is listed for every piece of property in Wood County on the Auditor’s website. The Auditor used the current 2022 tax assessment value to set the rate of 5.55 mills.
Let us use a house having an Auditor’s estimated appraised value in 2022 of $250,000 as an example. The house would have a ‘tax assessment’ value of 35% of $250,000 or $87,500. Each mill of an approved levy raises $1 per $1,000 of ‘tax assessment’ value. 5.55 mills would cost the owner of that $250,000 appraised value house $485.63 per year. (5.55 x $87,500) That amount of tax to be collected each year does not increase if the Auditor’s estimated appraised value of your home increases. The Auditor by law is required to review and adjust estimated appraised value of real estate in the county periodically, approximately every 3 years. The law requires however, that the Auditor must adjust the amount collected on a voted bond levy to collect no more than the amount originally calculated when the levy was approved. As the Auditor’s appraised value of property increases, the millage collected is reduced. Granted $485.63 is not an insignificant amount of tax, even on a property having a value of $250,000, but that is about $9.34 per week or $1.33 per day, not even the cost of a weekly pizza, to build a new high school and keep Bowling Green one of the best places to raise a family.
Chet Marcin
(I am retired but spent most of my career as an attorney working with municipal law and throughout my career worked with the County Auditor to place expense levies and bond issue levies on the ballot. I also verified the above tax information with the County Auditor’s office.)
