This chart tells the story - spending is rising faster than funding. Without additional funding - or a dramatic decrease in the rate of spending growth - our School District will be out of money in 2012.
But that's not all.
Even if we pass a new permanent operating levy in 2011, another levy will likely be needed no later than 2013... and again in 2015... and every two years as long as we allow spending to continue on this trajectory.
Unless some things change.
Ohio public schools are funded primarily by these sources:
- The property taxes paid by homeowners in the school district.
- The property taxes paid by businesses in the school district.
- In some cases, an income tax paid by residents of the school district. This is not the case in Hilliard.
- The so-called Foundation Aid provided by the State of Ohio.
If all of these sources had grown in proportion to each other over time, our problem would not be so severe. Unfortunately, that has not been the case.
The Mayors and City Councils of the three cities in our school district have allowed houses to be built by the thousands. According to a statistic often quoted by Superintendent Dale McVey, each of those homes will house - on average - 0.8 school age children. Our current per-student operating cost is over $10,000/yr, meaning that each new house adds about $8,000 to the cost of operating our school district. However, the average home in Hilliard generates less than half that amount in school tax.
The State of Ohio has not been much help lately either. While the student population in Hilliard Schools has grown from 12,000 in 1999 to 15,150 in 2008, our Foundation Aid funding from the State has been held constant for several years. That means the State of Ohio is contributing very little to the cost of educating the 3,000 kids added to our district in the last decade.
The burden on the homeowners in our district would have been eased substantially if commercial development had happened at the same pace as residential development. Commercial properties pay school taxes just like residential properties, but of course send no children to our schools.
These charts show the growth in Residential property values versus Commercial property values in the City of Hilliard and the portion of the City of Columbus in the Hilliard City School District.
Note that while the aggregate residential property value in both cities has grown approximately $625 million in the last decade, the growth in business property valuation is very different.
The City of Hilliard has grown its business property valuation from $46 million in 1989 to $163 million in 2009, an increase of $117 million, or 19% of the residential growth.
Contrast that to the City of Columbus, which has grown the value of its businesses property within the Hilliard School District from $85 million in 1989 to $325 by 2009, or $240 million. This is double the dollar amount of business property valuation in the City of Hilliard. While Mayor Schonhardt often blames the City of Columbus for adversely affecting the economics of our school district, the evidence is that Mayor Schonhardt's administration is far worse in this regard. (source: Valuation History report, available on the HCSD website)
So here's the punch line: As the cost of running our school district continues to rise - which is only partially due to the growth in students - the only source of new money available to us is additional property taxes on the existing homeowners and businesses.
We have both a spending problem and a funding problem. The solutions are clear:
- Reduce the rate of spending growth, which primarily means slowing the rate of growth of employee compensation and benefits
- Control the pace of residential development so that new homes are built no faster than new commercial development.
| Next > |
|---|
