MANSFIELD — If you think the presidential election is the only big issue on the ballot this year, think again.
Voters in Richland County will have plenty of issues and candidates to decide on — including a new combined income and property tax levy for Mansfield City Schools.
The proposed levy would include a 1-percent tax on earned income and a 5.6-mill property tax. If approved, the levy would be collected for five years, first due in 2025.
The proposed levy would generate an additional $7.8 million in new operating money for the district, including $3 million from property tax and $4.8 million from income tax.
If approved, it would be the first new operating levy to pass at the ballot box since 2013, according to the district’s levy committee.
How much will it cost?
The proposed levy would cost all district residents 1-percent of their earned income. This includes money earned from wages, salaries, tips and other employee compensation.
Earned income does not include Social Security, other retirement pension systems, worker’s (disability) compensation, unemployment compensation, alimony, lottery winnings, capital gains, profit from rental activities, distributions from trusts and estates, interest and dividends.
It would also cost property owners in the school district $197.40 annually for every $100,000 of appraised value. That breaks down to $16.45 per month.
It’s worth nothing that appraised value is set by the county auditor for tax purposes. To find out what your home’s appraised value is, click here, look up your property, then find the total value (Appraised 100%) under the Valuation section.
Why is the levy on the ballot?
School districts haven’t been immune to rising costs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supporters of the levy say the district faces a “significant funding shortage” due to increasing operating costs, state mandates and the growing needs of students.
“Utilities, supplies, textbooks — everything has gone up across the board,” treasurer Barb Donohue said.
“Our busses were $70,000 (in 2013) and now they’re $120,000.”
According to the levy committee, the new funds would allow the district to cover rising operating costs and avoid deficit spending.
The district has carried an operating deficit for several years, despite steps to reduce costs.
These cost-saving measures include closing two buildings (Prospect Elementary School in 2022 and Brinkerhoff in 2024) and shutting down the Tyger Digital Academy, a pandemic-era virtual learning option that cost the district more than $2 million each year.
In July, Donohue told Richland Source the district had implemented $1.2 million in budget cuts for the 2024-2025 school year, including 16-percent reductions across department and building budgets.
“I think it should be underscored that our treasurer, along with our board, have made the right decisions to right-size the district,” said Teana Sykes, a member of the levy committee.
“Making the appropriate accommodations to make sure that we have the right number of buildings open, those buildings serve our students appropriately, and we can also offer all of the other extracurricular activities — even while navigating inflation for the last 10 years — I think that they’ve done an incredible job. It’s our job as a community to support them to continue doing that great job.”
Sykes and fellow levy committee member Dawn Kitchen acknowledged the levy would come at a cost, but encouraged voters to think of it as a long-term investment.
“Strong schools support healthy communities, healthy cities,” Sykes said. “When you have strong schools, then you can attract business. People want to come here, and they want to create businesses here.”
“If we want Mansfield to grow, not looking backwards to the days of old, but looking forward to the future, there has to be an investment and that’s one that everyone has to have a stake in.”
