November 6, 2003

Voters handily pass school levies

Yellow Springs voters voiced their support for the public schools at the polls on Tuesday, as two levy renewals won handily in the school district.

Voters in all village and Miami Township precincts passed the permanent improvement levy and the emergency operating levy by substantial margins. Altogether, voters cast 1,026 ballots, or about 65 percent, for Issue 11, the permanent improvement levy, and 559, or 35 percent, against. Voters approved Issue 12, the emergency operating levy, by 1,006, or about 64 percent, to 568, or 36 percent.

“I’m very pleased with the results,” Angela Wright, the Board of Education vice president, said on Wednesday morning. “The committee did a fantastic job getting information out and people responded. I want to thank the entire community.”

Both levies are renewals and reductions of current levies. The permanent improvement levy is for 1.2 mills, reduced from the current 2.2 mils, and the emergency operating levy is for 10.1 mils, reduced from the 10.3 mils. The five-year permanent improvement levy will provide the schools with $69,000 a year for technology and bus needs. The three-year emergency levy, which begins in 2005, will generate $1.06 million a year for operating costs.

During the levy campaign, school officials stressed that they reduced current levy amounts because of the schools’ relatively healthy financial shape and because the passage of a school income tax two years ago helped diversify school funding.

In a second local issue, Yellow Springs voters said yes to Issue 26, which will allow the Village to continue to collect taxes from businesses classified as S corporations. An S corporation is a business that passes its income to its shareholders, who report the company’s profit or loss on their individual tax returns.

About 75 percent of villagers who voted on the issue, or 936 voters, supported Issue 26, while 25 percent, or 313 voters, voted against it.

On a county issue, Yellow Springs voters supported Issue 14, which will provide $7.5 million over the next five years for Greene Memorial Hospital. In the village, 1303 voters supported Issue 14 while 485 voters opposed the levy.

Countywide, the issue passed, with 20,377 votes, or 55 percent, for supporting the levy and 16,624 voters, or 45 percent, voting against.

Local voters also supported Issue 1, a statewide issue that would have allowed the state government to issue $500 million in bonds over the next 10 years to help fund Governor Taft’s Third Frontier Project. The issue passed in Yellow Springs, 800 to 504, but statewide, Ohio voters defeated the bond issue, 51 to percent.

—Diane Chiddister