Almost 60 Northeast Ohio school districts have tax levies on the ballot this November, including several that saw failures during the May election.
That includes Parma City School District, Elyria City School District and Streetsboro City Schools. Meanwhile, almost 20 districts have certain kinds of levies on the ballot that will be banned from use after this election by the state legislature in a bid to provide property tax relief.
Levies are expressed in terms of mills. In dollars and cents, a mill translates to a tenth of a penny. For the homeowner, a levy is applied to 35% of a property's assessed value. That value is then multiplied by the number of mills in the levy. So for a 1-mill levy, the owner of a home valued at $100,000 would be $35 a year.
- Renewal: A renewal of a previous levy that does not increase taxes. It's based on property values from when the original levy passed.
- Bond issue: A longer-term levy meant for a large construction project, used to pay for a loan the district takes out to pay for the project.
- Additional: A levy that creates a new tax based on current property values, generally used to pay for operations but not always. Some of these levies are limited to use on "permanent improvements," or work on maintenance and construction of district buildings rather than operations.
- Substitute: A renewal of a previous levy that does not increase taxes for most property owners but does apply to new construction since the levy first passed.
- Income tax: A tax based on residents' income, instead of property taxes. Generally, districts are funded by property taxes.
School districts trying again
Parma City School District has suffered a string of failed levy attempts, and it hasn't seen a new levy approved by the district since 2010.
Superintendent Scott Hunt said the district's need for a levy hasn't gone away. The district's latest financial forecast shows it running out of money completely by the end of the 2028 school year, with a projection of being almost $5 million in the red.
Hunt said he hopes this year will be different. The district's external steering committee, staffed by volunteers, is raising money to advocate for the levy's passage, and that group has hired a nonprofit called Support Ohio Schools to lead messaging and outreach efforts in the community.
"I'm not talking about this in terms of we want to raise taxes for our community members. That's just not the approach to take. And what we're calling it is an investment in the future for Parma city school students, because that's what it is," Hunt said.
Hunt noted the district has lost about $1.8 million in federal funding and another $5 million in state funding in the current two-year state budget.
Elyria City School District is also making another attempt at a new levy to fund operations after its previous levy attempt failed. Superintendent Ann Schloss said the district has also lost funding despite recent increases in property values in the county and across the country, thanks in part to the way the state calculates funding for schools.
"You read about how everybody's valuations are up and we're getting more money from taxpayers on property and all that, but what they don't realize is the more we get there, the less money the state gives us," Schloss said. "So it's not additional money."
Treasurer Colleen Aholt said the district also lost about $4.4 million this year and next year in state funding after changes to the state's funding model. She noted the property tax burden has shifted significantly over the last three decades onto local property owners. As of 1975, home and farm owners paid 46.1% of school property taxes, with those property owners now paying 67.5% of school taxes in 2023, according to a recent analysis by the Ohio Education Policy Institute, a nonprofit research group that prepares reports for education interests.
Streetsboro City Schools is also again seeking a new levy for operations after a failed attempt in the 2025 spring primary. Elsewhere, Vermilion Local Schools is seeking a bond issue this fall to repair old buildings after its previous bond issue failed in the spring.
The majority of school districts in Northeast Ohio with levies on the ballot are not seeking new taxes. Instead, they are looking for renewals or substitute levies.
However the Ohio Senate voted last week to join the House in overriding a veto from Gov. Mike DeWine on a provision in the state budget banning certain levy type.
How will legislature's actions affect schools?
The veto, which goes into effect 90 days after the Senate's action last week, bans districts and other taxing entities from putting substitute, replacement and emergency levies on the ballot.
Chuck Walder, the Republican auditor for Geauga County, advocated for the Legislature to eliminate these types of levies. He said districts were able to use emergency and substitute levies to receive additional funding but still stay below the 20-mill floor, meaning they also receive the benefit of greater tax increases when property values rise. The 20-mill floor is a complicated concept, referring to districts that levy 20 mills or less of property taxes. Those districts under House Bill 920, Ohio's property-tax law from 1976, are allowed to receive increased tax revenue when property values increase on their levies, unlike districts above the 20-mill floor.
"So they get a kind of an unfair advantage in that regard," Walder explained. "So that's just a phenomena that's always been around since 920 existed, but it was kind of exasperated with the 30% increase in property values that we saw."
West Geauga Local Schools does have a substitute levy on the ballot in November, along with five other districts. Treasurer Karen Pavlat said the district is taking two emergency levies that will expire in the coming years and combining them into a substitute levy. She said it will not result in increased property taxes for residents and will be used to pay for a significant portion of the district's operations.
"They've been renewed three times over the 22 years, so they will continue to be used to pay for those staff salaries," she explained. "They represent 16% of our total budget. So if we didn't have those, there would have to be obviously cuts made."
Aholt said Elyria schools will have several emergency levies expiring in the coming years. She and Superintendent Ann Schloss said that presents a challenge for school districts. Instead of renewing the levies based on old, lower property values, the district will need to place new levies on the ballot based on new property values. Even if districts put lower millage on the ballot to match the previous levy, there's still a messaging issue, Schloss said.
"When you say a renewal and no new taxes, or what have you, to your community, it's a little easier to vote yes," Schloss said. "They (schools) are going to have to put it on like it's brand new (levy) and put it at maybe a different value to make the same amount of money. And that's scary because we all know what it's like to try to pass a levy right now."
In spring 2025, levies fared better statewide than they did in the 2024 primary, the Ohio School Boards Association, with 64% being approved compared to 52% in May 2024. Support for new taxes also grew, up to 40% approval from just 13% last spring.
