School Board to Examine Tax Increase

(posted 1-12-10)

Speedway's school board will be looking at a resolution tonight to increase property taxes by placing a referendum on the ballot at the primary election. As of now, the amount of money needed to be collected from taxpayers is still unknown. As of fall 2009, the school was running about a million dollar deficit.

Superintendent Ken Hull explained a presentation would be made at tonight's 7:30 pm meeting to figure out the details of raising taxes.

"The rate and potential levy have not yet been determined. This determination will come following a financial presentation of the impact to the Board this evening, prior to consideration of the resolution."

Hull explained the process that is needed to have the resolution on the ballot. One step involves City-County Council approval.
"The General Assembly created the law and process for a public question (the legal name for what we commonly call a referendum) in 2008. The citation is IC 20-46-1-8(a)(1).
The process:

The local governing body (School Board) adopts a resolution to place the public question on the ballot. (IC 20-46-1-8(a)(1).

The School Board certifies the resolution the public question to the City-County Council and requests the City-County Council to adopt a general resolution approving the certification. (IC 20-46-1-8(b).

The City-County Council considers and certifies the resolution and sends the public question to the County Clerk and the Election Board. (IC 20-46-1-12; IC 3-10-9-3-(1))

The Marion County Clerk holds an Election Board Meeting regarding the matter. (IC 20-46-1-13;IC 20-46-1-14;IC 20-46-1-15; IC 3-10-9-4)

Publication of notification of the question on the ballot 10 days before the question. (IC 20-46-1-14(e)) Ballots cast."


The SRC use of TIF money has had some adverse effects on the schools.

According to Hull, "the issues with local funding are the result of state control and the universal application of property tax caps across the state rather than the use of local control. Our issues are far more the result of the state legislature than they are of local decisions regarding TIFs. TIFs do not generally decrease our levy (they do reduce our ability to increase our levy to some degree), they shift the responsibility for funding the levy increases from the TIF area to the non-TIF area. I do agree that when property at Allison came out of the TIF, the community did not gain its value in its total assessed value (this added value was captured by the SRC), and the result was that the rest of the community realized an increase in property taxes to keep the school levy whole. This was larger in 2007 and 2008, but decreased significantly in 2009 with the removal of the general fund from property taxes."