Vermilion leaders say state tax reforms will cut district revenue and push $4.25M levy to November ballot

Wes Weaver, superintendent of Vermilion Local School District, said recent changes to Ohio property-tax law and large increases in home valuations will cost the district about $7,400,000 over the next two years — roughly 28% of its operating revenue — and that a renewal of the district's $4,250,000 fixed-sum levy is necessary to avoid deep cuts.

"This legislation will cost our school district $7,400,000 in the next 2 years which is a whopping 28% of our operating revenue," Weaver said during a public presentation. He identified Justin Klingshurn, the district treasurer, who provided the technical breakdown of state bills and local forecasts.

Klingshurn explained that several pieces of legislation signed in December 2025 change how levies are counted and how much revenue districts may collect. He said House Bill 129 reclassifies emergency levies as "fixed sum" levies and will take effect March 19, 2026, which forces Vermilion to move its renewal from the May ballot to November. He also said HB 129 now counts fixed-sum levies toward the 20-mill floor, a change that will change the district's effective millage calculations.

Klingshurn described additional laws limiting revenue growth: House Bill 186 will limit increases in tax revenue for districts at the 20-mill floor to the rate of inflation and will be implemented as a credit on tax bills (preliminary county estimates put that credit at about $845,000, or roughly a 7% reduction in residential taxes). House Bill 335 places inflation-based limits on inside millage growth; Klingshurn said that, for the district's cited period, inside millage collections rose 28.4% from 2021 to 2024 and that a cap tied to inflation would have reduced inside collections by about $200,000 in the example shown.

The treasurer also highlighted a piggyback provision from HB 66 allowing counties to adopt the state's homestead and owner-occupied exemptions; Erie and Lorain counties approved the exemption for the 2026 tax year, which the district estimates will cut roughly $500,000 a year in revenue for Vermilion.

Taken together, Weaver and Klingshurn said those changes — plus the district's recent reappraisals (home values rose about 26.5% in the most recent update) — create a projected shortfall that the district's forecast shows would put revenue back to 2005 levels and could exhaust cash reserves by 2028–2029 without levy renewal. Klingshurn said the district has begun reducing expenditures in preparation and that failure to renew the fixed-sum levy would likely lead to significant staffing and program cuts and could trigger fiscal emergency, a state-imposed financial control process.

Weaver stressed the levy on the November ballot is a renewal and "not a new tax," saying it "maintains the level of funding that we have now." He said the district will produce more detailed materials in the coming months explaining what the fixed-sum levy pays for and how programs and services would be affected if voters do not renew it.

Next steps: the district will prepare and publish a detailed breakdown of levy-funded services and anticipated impacts of nonrenewal before the November election. No formal vote or board action on the levy was recorded during the presentation.