Preliminary results are in from school levies on the May 6 ballot across the Miami Valley and in a low turn-out primary election, just a handful of people made some of these decisions.
The Brookville school district, in western Montgomery county, has had a new levy defeated twice, in one case by just two votes. The district did a big push to get out the vote this time, and that seems to have worked: initial results show that levy winning by about 250 votes.
In the Greenon district in Clark County, a difference of just 59 votes defeated a levy, which leaders say will mean making immediate cuts. But in the Clark-Shawnee district, results went the other way by less than a hundred votes; that district was also facing a deficit.
In Greene County, Greeneview’s .25 percent 30-year income tax for schools was defeated by 350 people, which is actually a fairly wide margin in that small district.
On the other hand, the Tri-County School District in rural Lewisburg passeda 1 percent tax by a couple hundred votes.
These are all new or additional taxes, which are generally more difficult to pass; most renewal levies (which don’t increase tax rates) passed around the state.
Preliminary results for local school levies (new or additional):*
Clark County:
Greenon LSD, additional 4.96-mill levy to avoid an operating deficit DID NOT PASS
FOR THE TAX LEVY 1,701 49.15%
AGAINST THE TAX LEVY 1,760 50.85%
Clark-Shawnee LSD, 6.95-mill additional 10-year levy to avoid an operating deficit PASSED
FOR THE TAX LEVY 1,853 51.27%
AGAINST THE TAX LEVY 1,761 48.73%
Greene County:
Greeneview LSD, .25 percent 30-year income tax increase (also affects some voters in Clinton and Fayette Counties; these are just Greene County results) DID NOT PASS
FOR THE TAX 450 35.97%
AGAINST THE TAX 801 64.03%
Montgomery County:
Brookville LSD, 5.25-mill additional levy for operating expenses PASSED
FOR THE TAX LEVY 1466 54.62%
AGAINST THE TAX LEVY 1218 45.38%
Preble County:
Tri-County North LSD, 1 percent, five-year additional income tax for schools (also affects some Montgomery and Darke County voters; these are just Preble County results) PASSED
FOR THE TAX 886 59.38%
AGAINST THE TAX 606 40.62%
*These results can change based on recounts and/or provisional ballots.
Lewis Wallace is WYSO's economics reporter. Follow him @lewispants.