State Rep. Al Cutrona’s earmark funding for a new local school building originally placed in the state budget bill was extracted from the bill before passage.

Good. It would have set a dangerous precedent involving school districts around the state also seeking state funding for new buildings.

Cutrona, R-Canfield, a Canfield schools graduate, initially sought to have $33 million included as an amendment to the House version of the budget bill. However, the Ohio Senate removed these types of earmarks before the bill passed and was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine.

Early on, even Cutrona took note of how unorthodox the measure would have been when he said this: “I’m honored to have brought this unprecedented funding for the Canfield school.”

We disagreed, and were pleased to see the Senate thought more logically in its decision to remove the item. State Sen. Sandra O’Brien said the Senate attempted to remove all such earmarks from the state budget bill because of the dangerous precedent.

While we understand Canfield Board of Education’s concern at the condition of aging school buildings, including the more than century-old middle school, we also believe strongly that the earmark would have been unfair to Ohio taxpayers who cannot possibly be called upon to fund the construction of new school buildings all throughout Ohio.

It’s true that less affluent school districts, in the past, have received state assistance in constructing new buildings. But in more affluent districts like Canfield, the practice in Ohio consistently has been to allow the local residents to make the decisions on funding capital improvements.

Voters in the Canfield school district spoke clearly when they overwhelmingly rejected a 6.9-mill, 37-year bond proposal on the May 2022 ballot that would have funded a $107.8 million construction project that included a new pre-kindergarten to eighth-grade campus and renovations to the high school.

Now Canfield voters are about to face another big decision.

School officials are moving ahead with a $104.95 million plan for school facilities improvements and plans for a 7.5-mill bond issue on the November ballot.

As we see it, that decision does belong to the Canfield voters. Their voices count in this decision.

If the state Legislature sees fit to revisit the practice of funding school facilities throughout Ohio, then so be it. But as it is currently set up, funding decisions will be up to the local voters, and should not fall on other taxpayers across the state of Ohio.