WESTLAKE, Ohio (Oct. 27, 2025)

Superintendent Scott Goggan told the Westlake City Schools board on Monday that recent state legislative moves and veto overrides "will have limited impact on Westlake" because the district does not operate at Ohio's cited "20-mill floor" and has a different levy profile than many districts targeted by proposals. He also said the district must prepare and present a plan after a $10,000,000 transfer to the capital improvement fund produced a projected deficit in year three of the district's forecast.

Goggan described the 20-mill concept as a historical floor in state law that interacts with property-value changes and said certain levies operate outside that floor. "Right now in Columbus they're looking to make some changes to property taxes," he said, and "it's a complicated piece. It's challenging, but it's been a move that districts have made over the past really, we've seen it explode in the past 20 years." He emphasized that Westlake has not passed an operating levy since 2006 and is therefore not among the districts seeing the large automatic increases others have experienced.

Why it matters: Several bills and a possible citizen initiative under discussion in Columbus aim to change how property taxes are collected and redistributed. Goggan warned that a wholesale removal of property-tax collection would shift local funding decisions to the state and could require a replacement revenue plan for schools and other local taxing authorities.

Goggan said district leaders had been notified last week that, because the forecast shows a deficit in year three, the board must approve a corrective plan at its December meeting and then certify it to the state (he said he believed a certification date of about Nov. 20 and that he would forward the email clarifying the deadline). He described the $10,000,000 transfer into the capital improvement fund as the primary driver of the forecast gap and said one option the board could consider in that plan would be rescinding the transfer.

On local control and replacement funding, Goggan urged the community to seek clarity before supporting measures that would eliminate property taxes. "If we're going to remove it, that's fine, but we need to have a solution in place before we remove property tax," he said. Board members and staff also raised concerns about how revenue would be replaced and whether the burden would shift from businesses to homeowners.

The superintendent and board praised state advocacy groups and regional consortia for providing analysis and working on potential mitigation. Goggan named the role of statewide associations and legislative contacts that provide district representation in Columbus as part of the effort to monitor and influence legislation.

What the board will do next: The district must prepare the corrective plan for the board's December meeting and certify required documents to the state. Goggan did not recommend rescinding the transfer immediately but left it as an option to be considered within the written plan.

Sources and attribution: Direct quotes and paraphrased explanations in this article come from Superintendent Scott Goggan's report to the board at the Oct. 27, 2025 Westlake City Schools board meeting.