One of the biggest frustrations that comes with seeing tax levies on an election ballot isn’t that local governments or boards of education want to raise your taxes.

Undoubtedly, most of us understand that over time, the cost of doing business goes up.

Just like in private business, salaries, insurance and utilities will increase. Just like at home, transportation and other basic operating costs will rise. Sometimes capital expenditures are needed. New buildings or improvements to existing buildings may be required. Equipment needs to be upgraded.

It’s true that no one ever wants to see their taxes increase, but here in Ohio, we are lucky enough to live in a state that allows local voters at least to have some control over the amount of property or sales taxes they pay. That isn’t the case everywhere, including in my home state of Pennsylvania.

Votes on tax levies don’t happen in the commonwealth. Rather, there you elect your local school board members or borough council members, and they make the decisions about your tax millage. If you don’t like it, you simply have to take that up at the ballot box the next time your elected representatives come up for re-election.

So, no, additional, replacement or renewal levies on the ballot don’t frustrate me. In fact, I’m thrilled to see them — not because I particularly like the idea of my taxes increasing, but because I like having the choice.

Residents in Ohio were feeling generous with their school levies this month, but not as generous as they felt the previous year — particularly when it came to additional levies.

According to information released by the Ohio School Boards Association after the May 3 Ohio primary election, voters were feeling relatively generous when it came to school tax issues.

Voters across Ohio approved 65 percent, or 49 of the total 75 school tax issues on the May 3 ballot. One year earlier, voters passed 50 of 73 school tax issues statewide for a slightly higher 68 percent success rates.

When it came to requests for new money, 13 of 34 issues passed, or just 38 percent. A year earlier, 20 of 40 requests for new tax issues passed — a 50 percent passage rate. That’s a 12 percent dip.

And even this month’s renewal levies passed at a rate lower than the previous year. This year 88 percent of renewal school levies passed, down from last year’s 91 percent passage rate.

This decline in passage rates was not lost on Ohio School Boards Association Director of Legislative Services Jennifer Hogue.

“Most of the issues approved by voters were renewals; it’s still an uphill battle to secure voter approval for new or additional money requests,” Hogue said in a prepared statement released by the Ohio School Boards Association the day after the recent primary election.

I suspect school officials and voters in the Canfield Local School District in Mahoning County and the Lakeview Local School District in Trumbull County aren’t surprised by those numbers.

Both those districts saw very large voter turnout numbers, and equally large “no” vote results on their levies. The two additional levies were the largest on any Mahoning Valley ballots this month.

Turnout for voters in the Canfield school district was 43.63 percent. Results show they came out largely to vote against the $107.8 million Canfield bond issue, which received only 28.22 percent support.

In the Lakeview school district, where a 6.8-mill additional levy received 40.74 percent support, turnout was 40.24 percent.

So, you ask, what is it, then, that frustrates me most about tax issues on election ballots?

It’s the repeat attempts at passage after the electorate clearly has said no.

Too often school and government officials have a hard time accepting that voters REALLY understood the issue or truly meant to say “no.”

Often they believe if they try again, somehow the answer this time will be different.

It’s been said the definition of insanity “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Here’s a word of advice for those community leaders or school officials who see defeat on a tax levy at the polls: Take the “no” seriously.

blinert@tribtoday.com