ORANGE TOWNSHIP — The Mapleton Local Schools Board of Education approved a resolution that would start the process of putting a new earned income tax levy on May’s ballot at its meeting Monday.
The levy is needed to stave off deficit spending and the eventual depletion of the district’s cash reserves, Mapleton Treasurer Katy Wiley said.
“Our last levy besides the building that was built was in 1992. When you go back and you look at that, that has been a long time we’ve been drawing on that money,” she said.
According to the resolution, the district needs more than a million dollars in new yearly revenue to keep up with its finances.
Right now, the district estimates the levy will be a 0.75 percent earned income tax. The board chose this tax because it does not apply to retirement money and some agricultural earnings, Wiley said.
“We felt this would be a fair way to take the burden off our senior citizens and our farmers,” she said.
The next step of the process is the Ohio Department of Taxation’s certification of the levy, which will then be sent back to the board for another approval.
In other business, the board approved the purchase of 125 student Chromebooks, 26 staff computers and monitors, and a three-year license for a district-wide digital content filter.
