Westerville superintendent warns 25% cash-cap amendment would force cuts

Angie Hamburg, superintendent of Westerville City School District, told the Ohio House Finance Committee on April 8 that an amendment to the state operating bill that would allow the auditor to suspend property tax collections for any district with a cash balance over 25% would rapidly exhaust her district’s funds and force severe reductions.

Hamburg said the district, which serves nearly 15,000 students across Franklin and Delaware counties and employs about 2,000 people, is using cash reserves as a planned stopgap while it transitions positions off federal ESSER funding and attempts to secure stable local revenue. “The only band aid we have right now is our cash balance, and like many districts, losing it abruptly would be catastrophic for us,” Hamburg said.

The superintendent told the committee the district had already absorbed a $4 million reduction in state funding this school year while seeing only about $2.7 million in increased local property-tax revenue after recent reappraisals, leaving the net effect a funding decrease. Hamburg said Westerville has been deficit spending as it phases positions back to the general fund and…