Financing district seeks renewal levy

Voters rejected issue in November

The Lake County School Financing District will be seeking a 4.9-mill renewal levy in the March 17 Primary Election after its initial rejection by voters in November.

The Financing District is comprised of Painesville, Perry, Madison and Riverside school districts. Together, the four districts created a 4.9-mill renewal levy in 1990 to help funding for personnel, materials and supplies, transportation, and more critical services. Voters have successfully renewed the levy since its inception until the 2019 rejection.

“It surprised us,” Riverside Treasurer Gary Platko said following the rejection. “It’s been renewed for the past 30 years. This is the first time the renewal failed.”

Its failure was marginal, losing by 50.4 percent to 49.96 percent. A Nov. 25 recount was held which supported the initial count. Of the 16,579 people who voted on the issue, it was ultimately decided by only 13 votes.

This is a big difference compared to the last time voters decided on the levy’s fate in 2015 when it passed 64.73 percent to 35.27 percent.

The renewal levy would generate $5,750,648 annually and cost a homeowner $69.79 a year per $100,000 in property valuation.

Regardless of the 2019 election outcome, funding from the renewal levy will remain available for the remainder of 2020 as it completes its latest five-year cycle.

Painesville Superintendent Joshua Englehart says his district may lose $550,000 annually or $2.75 million over five years if the renewal levy fails March 17. He added that they have not yet gone into deep discussion on what would need to be cut in order to offset the lack of funding.

“Personnel and transportation are larger-budget items in a district, so we would likely need to start by looking in these areas,” he said.

“We’ve already very recently streamlined our transportation operations and reduced administrative personnel in the interest of fiscal responsibility, which makes further reductions more challenging.

“We would make every effort to minimize the impact on programming and opportunities for our students, but some magnitude of impact would be unavoidable,” Englehart said.

Should it fail again, the Educational Service Center of the Western Reserve will be able to put it back on the ballot for the Aug. 4 Special Election and on the Nov. 3 General Election if necessary.