There are just over 90 days until the May primary election, and this time around, some local school districts are taking a different approach to win over voters at the ballot box and draw in new money for schools.
Several local districts say they're struggling to balance their budgets and need additional funds to stay afloat. But new money has been hard to come by. The Ohio School Boards Association says school tax levy renewals have had overwhelming voter support. In the Nov. 2025 election, more than 91% of renewal levies passed. At the same time, 33% of newly proposed ballot issues that would raise taxes were approved. That's still an increase from 25% in the previous year.
Fairfield City Schools, Mt. Healthy City Schools and Franklin City Schools have all decided to proceed with placing either a traditional or an earned income tax on the ballot this May, after unsuccessful attempts to pass property tax proposals in recent years.
Traditional income taxes apply to all income earners, including those receiving retirement and disability income. Earned income taxes, on the other hand, don't tax those receiving retirement and disability income.
What schools are proposing
Fairfield Schools is proposing a 1.25% earned income tax to help retain staff, student services and transportation services. The district says more local funds are needed because its current expenses are outpacing the school system's revenue by about $9 million. Fairfield attempted to pass a property tax in 2024, but failed.
Mt. Healthy Schools is preparing to make its fourth attempt in two years to get new local revenue. The district has been in a fiscal emergency since April 2024 and has already made sweeping cuts across the small, urban district to get its finances back on track. Property tax proposals have consistently failed, so district leaders are trying something different.
After originally approving a new property tax proposal in December, the Board of Education changed course, deciding this January to go with a 0.75% earned income tax expected to generate $3.3 million for the school district annually.
Franklin City Schools tried and failed to pass a 1% continuing traditional income tax last fall. Now, the district is putting that same 1% tax back on the ballot. But this time, the levy would expire after 10 years. The school district says it's trying to pass the levy to avoid reducing bus transportation, eliminating all-day kindergarten and adding more student fees.
A 'new normal'
Mike Collins, executive director of Support Ohio Schools, a nonprofit that conducts research on school levies in Ohio and consults on levy campaigns, says he expects the school income tax proposal to be the new normal in many communities this year. Collins says concerns over rising property taxes across Ohio have made some voters hostile to the idea of additional property tax levies to support local school districts. Instead, he's telling schools to go with the other option.
"We've started to get really connected to this whole idea," Collins told WVXU. "We are becoming a proponent of looking at earned income first for all school districts."
Collins says the idea behind proposing an earned income tax is to appeal to certain voters, specifically older, retired populations, who own property but don't currently work.
Still, some worry that moving from a property tax to an income tax will shift too much of the financial burden onto working families that send their kids to public schools and have to keep up with rising costs just like everybody else.
Stephanie Anderson, president of the Mt. Healthy Board of Education, pushed back against the idea of an earned income tax in January. She told fellow board members that it may test well with retired voters in the community, but younger people, including working students in the district, would be picking up the slack and would be taxed even more.
"I'm all for anything that works," Anderson said. "I just worry about the working families that are going to see this as too much of a burden."
Anderson eventually voted in favor of putting the income tax on the ballot after other members spoke in support of it, saying it was Mt. Healthy's best chance to bring in much-needed funding.
Not every school district is shifting to an income tax strategy. New Richmond Exempted Schools is putting a five-year, 8 mil property tax levy on the ballot this spring to cover its current expenses after failing to pass a 1.25% earned income tax levy in the November election. If passed, the new property tax proposal would generate nearly $4.4 million for the district each year.
Ultimately, Collins says local school districts are too reliant on passing levies to stay afloat. If Ohio changed its funding model, districts wouldn't have to strategize the way they are now.
"The issue is, why isn't there greater state support?" he said.
This year's primary election is set for May 5.
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