Tipp City board warned proposed state budget changes could cut roughly $814,000 in local school funding

District staff and board members at a Tipp City Exempted Village work session spent the meeting examining how several pending state measures could change local school revenue, forecasting and levy dynamics.

Aaron, a district staff member who led the briefing, told the board that property reappraisals across Ohio have produced 25%–35% valuation increases in many counties and that legislators are considering a range of bills to respond to taxpayer concerns. He summarized one proposal in House Bill 96 as using a cash-balance calculation (now commonly 30% of general-fund expenses) to determine whether a district is holding more funds than permitted and authorizing the county budget commission to reduce tax collections accordingly. "If you have more than $9,000,000 in your general fund, you have too much money, so we're going to have the county budget commission reduce the tax valuation," he said during the presentation.

Board members asked how a temporary reduction would be handled in later years. A board member asked, "If they reduce it by 1 year, the next year, if we need more, we cannot go back up to that?" Aaron replied that the county commission could restore collections to the voter-approved level but would not retroactively replace money withheld in prior years. He also warned that a separate change to the state funding formula — previously phased in over multiple years under the Fair School Funding plan — could further complicate forecasting.

On the scale of potential impact, the group cited an illustrative example of aggregate reductions that came to about $814,000 over a multi-year period under one set of proposals. Aaron noted the district had already taken roughly $2 million in salary-and-benefit reductions in the previous summer to address forecasted shortfalls; he said the district's ending cash balance for the prior year was 36.2% of expenses, which he described as the fourth-lowest percentage in Miami County.

The board also discussed other legislative proposals. S2 explained Senate Bill 22 would create a property-tax "circuit breaker" to target homeowners and renters whose property-tax-related payments exceed 5% of income; at the same time, members raised concern that some tax-relief bills primarily benefit higher-income property owners. The group spent significant time on the expansion of voucher and EdChoice programs, with several members saying state voucher funding moves public dollars to private and community schools with comparatively limited oversight. "It's just another — it's just moving money from the public to the private sector," Aaron said.

Board members pressed staff on options for local mitigation if revenues decline. Aaron outlined district-owned parcels (including Michael Road properties and a Broadway site tied to upcoming building moves) and described statutory steps required before disposing of district property. He and board members recommended continued legislative engagement, using OSBA/OASBO materials and direct outreach to local representatives to explain district programs and needs.

The meeting closed after the board voted to adjourn the work session. The board did not take any legislative position or motion to join outside coalitions during the meeting; one board member suggested further research before making advocacy decisions.

The board asked staff to keep monitoring bill progress and return with specific scenarios if proposals firm up, noting the next state budget actions are scheduled before June.