WARREN — Dozens of school superintendents and treasurers packed the Trumbull County Commissioners meeting room Tuesday afternoon to discuss a proposal made last month that could significantly lower the amount of property taxes they would receive.

Commissioners discussed a plan to reduce the tax burden being experienced by property owners using provisions of Ohio House Bill 96 that would allow the county to match the state’s homestead property tax exemption and increase the amount of sales tax dollars that can stay within the county.

THE PROPOSAL

School district leaders said the potential homestead and owner-occupied rollback expansion without state reimbursement would cost 21 Trumbull County school districts nearly $6.7 million.

Lakeview Treasurer Terry Armstrong noted the county’s effort to match the 2.5% homestead tax reduction now being taken by the state would have a negative financial impact to every county school district. He added that school districts, townships and libraries have historically been reimbursed by the state so they are not harmed by rollbacks.

“When the income tax was created, there was a provision to provide 10% property tax rollbacks and the revenue from income tax would pay those reimbursements to communities,” Armstrong said. “Unfortunately, the rollback expansion the counties have now does not include those reimbursements.”

Armstrong noted that school district leaders realize the county needs additional revenue to operate.

“Making certain that the state of Ohio provides reimbursements for the property tax rollbacks for all property taxes would be a great start,” Armstrong said.

He said a 2.5% rollback would be a $450,000 loss for the Lakeview Local School District.

“It will have an impact on our district going forward,” he said.

Lakeview does not have a problem with spending more money than it receives.

“We spend 30% less than the state average,” Armstrong said. “We don’t have a staffing issue.”

LaBrae Superintendent A.J. Calderone noted area school districts and the county have no choice but to begin partnering with each other.

“The political expediency of the day is that these conversations we’re having today should have begun happening years ago,” Calderone said. “You, as commissioners, now have been bestowed some power that is eroding some local control from boards of education.”

He suggested the commissioners must proceed with caution on any efforts that would pull money away from school districts because there is already tax reform underway.

“Between now and 2029, we are already going to see a decrease in the nonbusiness credit, with a gradual increase in the owner-occupied credit,” he said. “We are going to see homeowners go from a 12.5% credit to a total of 15.38%. That reform is already underway.”

Calderone noted that LaBrae Local Schools have been fiscally prudent and the district does not have a spending problem.

“We might be the only school district in Trumbull County that has not asked for new operating revenue since 1992. There is a lot of fiscal responsibility throughout Trumbull County,” Calderone said. “If we overreact and go above and beyond what the legislature has put in place, the unintended consequence is we might be on the ballot for levy requests more frequently.”

Champion Superintendent John Grabowski said that not every district in Trumbull County is the same.

“We do not get a lot of federal funding,” he said. “But the number of kids that are on IEP has gone through the roof since COVID impacted our kids. We are putting more and more money into helping our students with special needs.”

He noted Champion schools are looking at significant changes in its funding sources based on the current biennial budget and property tax reform.

“By the end of 2030, the forecast shows cash balances to decline by $6 million,” Grabowski said.

He noted that the proposal being considered by the commissioners would cost Champion $408,938 in one year.

“We respectfully ask that you pause,” Grabowski said. “You take caution in looking to see how the current laws that have been passed are going to affect our communities.”

He noted that Champion is looking at shared service agreements with other area districts to reduce its costs.

Liberty Superintendent Brian Knight said the district is in great need of creating a climate and culture that students, families and community want to be a part of, and the district would lose $383,252.97 if the proposal is passed.

“We are not frivolous spending to upgrade what our students need,” he said. “With a cut like this, we might have to make some important decisions. I don’t want to see that. It is important that we collaborate.”

Howland Superintendent Kevin Spicher described his district as a heavily locally funded district. The district had a performance audit 12 years ago.

“We did a little bit of shaving of some of our costs,” he said. “When we had the performance audit, we cut and cut, and cut through attrition to get to a level where we felt comfortable.”

Under the proposal being considered by the commissioners, Howland could have a loss of $917,991.49.

Commissioner Rick Hernandez said he does not want to cut any amount of money from the schools.

“I believe in our schools and the townships having the proper EMS, fire, policing and road services,” he said. “When you are talking about the owner-occupancy and the homestead credits, they are two different animals.

“The homestead credit is a decimating situation. The owner-occupancy credit is divided among everybody. Maybe there is a compromise between the two.”

He noted the state legislature needs to stop passing the ball and putting it to local government to make these types of decisions.

COMMISSIONERS’ VIEWS

Commissioner Denny Malloy said the problem the county is facing is that officials in Columbus are putting the state’s hands in the county’s pockets by taking 5.75% of the county’s 6.75% sales tax.

“They are leaving us with 1% to operate,” he said. “The unmandated increase is something we need to tackle.”

Malloy said he does not want people to be forced out of their homes.

“The state is squeezing people,” he said. “Why are they putting it on us all of the time? None of us want to raise any taxes.”

He said the reform route is the way to move forward.

Commissioner Tony Bernard said it all boiled down to the state legislature because it created the problem and is the one that needs to solve it. He noted that Ohio has a $4 billion rainy day fund.

“They need to give the local government back more of the money,” he said. “The state needs to help us to go to the federal government and the federal government needs to be giving the state back more money that they can give back to us.”

“The state and federal governments have enough funds,” he said. “They just are not bringing it back to local governments.”