A little over a third of school levies statewide passed in Tuesday’s primary, which is half of the passage rate last May. But school officials said even with homeowners’ concerns about rising property taxes, they don’t think the two-thirds failure rate shows a voter revolt on levies.
A total of 24 of 66 levies passed, or 36%. A total of 12 of out of 50 new school levies, or 24% were approved. Voters passed 12 of 16 renewal levies, or 75%.
But Paul Imhoff with the Buckeye Association of School Administrators said the results don't worry him right now.
“New money levies in the state of Ohio, whether it's an income tax or whether it's a property tax, really fail about seven out of 10 times. That's been true for almost 25 years," Imhoff said in an interview. "Renewals pass about 80% of the time. So when we look at the numbers, those are pretty consistent.”
Three quarters of the operating levies on the ballot Tuesday were new levies, and only about a quarter of those passed. But 75% of the renewal levies on the ballot passed.
Imhoff said, “If we were going to try to paint a picture that Ohioans are revolting against property taxes, we wouldn't be able to do that based upon the results because they don't paint that picture. They paint the same picture that's been painted over the last 25 years.”
There are around 210 school districts that levy income taxes, or about 34% of all districts.
