Brunswick leaders warn state budget and tax reforms could cut millions from schools’ coffers

Brunswick City School District leaders told the Board of Education on June 17 that elements of Ohio’s 2025 biennial budget and several accompanying property-tax bills could reduce district revenue by millions and undermine long-term financial planning.

“It's not often that I send emails to our parents that I say I'm reaching out with a sense of urgency,” Superintendent Jason Niedermeier said, summarizing why district officials have been meeting with state lawmakers and testifying in Columbus.

Niedermeier and Mark Morgan, a district finance lead who presented the budget details, described three separate but related threats: changes to how the state implements the Fair School Funding plan, a proposed cap on school cash balances that would limit carryover funds, and several bills that would alter local property tax calculations and the treatment of emergency levies.

Niedermeier explained the budget timeline to the board and said the conference committee was expected to finalize a reconciled budget around June 25, with the governor having days afterward to sign or line-item veto the measure. Morgan said the governor’s original executive budget…