JEROMESVILLE — A pair of renewal levies on the ballot for Hillsdale Local Schools yielded a split result when all was said and done Tuesday night.
The district voted at its May meeting to place two levy renewals on the November ballot: a 20.1 mill operating levy and a 1.4 mill permanent improvement levy.
Treasurer Lesa Deter offered a snapshot of the district’s financial future at that meeting. She told the board the district could face a budget shortfall of around $7 million by the end of the 2027-2028 school year without the passage of those renewal levies.
Voters approved the 1.4 mill permanent improvement levy by a razor thin margin of 51 votes, according to final, unofficial election results. Out of a total 3,505 votes cast, 1,778 people voted for the levy. That means it earned 50.73% of the vote.
That levy pays for upgrades to buses, technology, cybersecurity issues and the district’s facilities, according to Supt. Catherine Trevathan.
The 20.1 mill operating levy, however, was rejected. It failed by a margin of 51.15% to 48.85%, with 1,780 people voting against the renewal and 1,700 voting for it.
Trevathan said the operating levy doesn’t pay for the building. Instead, it pays for things like staffing, student supplies and the district’s ability to keep the lights on. The district has two more tries to get it to pass at the polls before the district loses the funds from the levy, according to Cindy Funk, the Ashland County auditor.
How will this impact the district?
However, Trevathan and Funk said the amount taxpayers will pay won’t change, with or without the levy’s passage. That’s thanks to a law requiring school districts to operate at a 20-mill floor. The Legislature requires the effective rate for schools cannot dip below 20 mills, Funk said.
Instead, the district stood to lose $8.7 million in public utilities revenue if the operating levy didn’t pass. Public utilities pay at 100% of the millage, while taxpayers pay at 35%. Public utilities, according to Funk, include any operating within Hillsdale, like the Rover Pipeline or Ohio Edison. Not renewing the levy means those public utilities will pay less.
“If somebody thought that voting no on this levy will affect their taxes, that is not correct,” Funk said.
Ashland Source reached out to the Rover Pipeline for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Funds from the Rover Pipeline paid for Hillsdale’s new building, which opened during the 2023-2024 school year. The Rover Pipeline is currently wrapped up in a lawsuit regarding its valuation for Ohio’s public utility personal property tax.
Trevathan and Hillsdale treasurer Lesa Deter have said the pipeline is only paying 48% of its valuation currently — enough for the district’s mortgage on the new building. The lawsuit is ongoing, which means the district is uncertain of how much the pipeline will have to pay in the future.
The district hasn’t yet talked through next steps. Trevathan said what’s likely to happen is the board will discuss options to put the renewal levy back on the ballot in the spring. If it were to fail in the spring, the district could also place it on the ballot for next November.
If it doesn’t pass in November, that’s when the district would be looking at the $8.7 million loss.
“We haven’t talked about exactly what cuts could happen,” Trevathan said.
How’d other levies fare?
Hillsdale wasn’t the lone school district to have a levy on the ballot this November.
Loudonville-Perrysville Exempted Village Schools also gave voters a say on a bond issue and tax levy. That issue aimed to fund a $71 million new pre-K-12 school building for the district. Voters also rejected that bond issue Tuesday.
Mapleton Local Schools has also tried three times in recent years to pass an income tax levy that would generate additional revenue for that district.
Most recently, those efforts stalled last November, when voters rejected it by a margin of 57.11% to 42.89%. Mapleton hasn’t passed a levy in 32 years.
