Facing ‘significant debt,’ Monroe schools consider tax move

By Denise Wilson, Staff Writer 4:49 PM Friday, February 11, 2011

MONROE — The Monroe Schools are considering moving inside millage into a permanent improvement fund to secure additional revenue for the district.

By law, the school board does not need voter approval to move the inside millage to a permanent improvement fund. Moving inside millage allows for taxes to go up without taxpayers voting.

Not all moves result in tax increases.

Some Ohio school districts are turning to this option to avoid putting a levy before voters. Some Butler County districts have moved inside millage within the past decade.

According to the Ohio Dept. of Taxation, less than 90 of Ohio’s 612 school districts have used inside millage.

A meeting to determine if the option is viable for the Monroe district has been scheduled at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28, in the cafeteria of Monroe Elementary School, 230 Yankee Road. A school board with different members two years ago also considered moving inside millage.

Additional informational meetings will be conducted after the initial one, district officials said.

“Once we have the public hearing meetings, we’re hoping that no taxes will go up,” Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli said. Lolli said Kelley Thorpe, the district’s treasurer, has had preliminary conversations about the millage with Butler County Auditor Roger Reynolds.

“We don’t have firm numbers yet because the tax information is not due until about the middle of February. The board has not made that decision about how much we’re going to move,” she said.

Lolli said she thinks if the board approves moving the inside millage into a permanent improvement fund, it would use some of the funds to pay down debt.

“We have significant debt. We still owe several million dollars on the stadium complex and the central office building ... we owe less than a million on that,” she said.

The stadium complex debt would be tackled first, Lolli said.

“If we started even getting tighter in the general fund, then we would probably use that for technology. The concern right now is getting the debt down,” she said

Permanent improvement monies can only be used for building maintenance, technology, debt, textbook purchases, and items that will last longer than 5 years, district officials said.

The monies cannot be used for operating expenses such as salaries or benefits.

Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5219 or dewilson@coxohio.com.