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State officials, advocates urge property-tax levy instead of income tax
Summary
A state senator, a State Board of Education member and community advocates urged the Cincinnati School Board to place a property-tax levy on the ballot and to rescind any proposed income tax, citing cuts to district revenue and concerns about regressivity and privatization.
State Senator Bill Blessing told the board he sent a letter encouraging the board to put a property-tax increase on the ballot and warned that recent state actions would reduce the district's expected local revenue. Blessing said the district had experienced budget cuts and cited House Bill 186 and House Bill 335 as examples of legislative changes that will affect local revenue growth.
"I did send you guys a letter of encouragement... that would be for, a property tax increase and send that to the ballot," Blessing said, urging the board to be "proactive and conservative." Harriet Russell, a longtime district figure and former board member, told the board to "rescind the income tax proposal because it is not a proven consistent source of revenue in an urban district" and asked the board to place a property tax on the Nov. 3 ballot. Katie Hoffman, a member of the State Board of Education, said the Ohio legislature has run a "playbook" she described as intended to privatize public education and urged the board not to pursue an income tax because it would be regressive. "They want to destroy public education in Ohio," Hoffman said, and she asked board members to "do what is right" for students.
