NEW ALBANY — Five years in the making, the question is on the ballot. Either way, property taxes go down. For voters, it’s just a matter of how far down they want them to go.
On the ballot for the primary election Tuesday, May 5, is a referendum to raise $80 million for the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp., one of nearly 20 school referenda on the May ballot across Indiana. The money locally would go toward upgrading or replacing five schools in the district, but the sticking point for voters is how much less they want to pay in taxes.
The rate is advertised at 20.04 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. If the referendum passes, a homeowner whose property is assessed at $135,000 would see an impact of $292.60, including homestead, supplemental homestead and mortgage deductions. If it fails, the same homeowner would see the impact at $181.37.
Though the primary vs. general election timing has been a sticking point for county residents and opposition groups, the district’s deputy superintendent, Brad Snyder, said placing the measure on the primary ballot is about trying to give taxpayers consistency in their tax bills once the new debt is assumed.
He said if officials waited until the November election, they’d run the risk of the debt coming on later, giving taxpayers one year of a sharp rate falloff when old bonds expire followed by a steep increase, though it would still be lower than rates they’re paying now.
“The entire plan hinges on the premise of us wanting to be sensitive to the taxpayer, wanting to take 23 cents off the rate and put 20 cents on the rate,” Snyder said. “In order to do that, we have to place close attention on timelines. We have to wait until that debt falls off and then load the new debt in a timely fashion.”
As early voters cast their ballots and the clock ticks toward election day, supporters and detractors are working to convince voters to cast their ballots one way or the other.
Now that schools are no longer able to save money in their budget year-over-year for big projects and other restrictions have been placed on how they can borrow money, Snyder said he hopes the public understands the need for the referendum.
“The game has changed,” Snyder said. “It’s not about school boards, it’s not about the project, it’s not about taxes, it’s about voting. This is a political process. If any community wants to do anything good for the kids of that community or protect the value of that community, it’s got to go through the ballot box.
“Sooner or later, a referendum is going to prevail in Floyd County.”
THE OPPOSITION
Signs paid for by Greenville Concerned Citizens were placed around New Albany and the rest of the county encourage voters to cast “no” on their ballots for the referendum. All registered voters in the county are eligible to vote on the measure.
Joanna Danzl, president of the organization, said the schools aren’t the only project needed in the county and others coming from local governmental agencies may also raise the property tax rate.
“It’s a very large percentage of our property taxes to the school,” Danzl said. “There’s other needs in the county. We’re going to need a jail, that’s already been proposed, the roads. You’d think the county would want some of that money also.”
The issue of the jail was brought to the county commissioners earlier this month and the New Albany-Floyd County Library has also weighed the option of a new or renovated library. Neither has presented financial estimates on the cost of the projects, tax impact on property owners or time frames.
Carol Lamb, secretary for the group, said they got involved with their campaign a little late. She said the issue got her attention during a Floyd County Commissioners meeting March 17, where Snyder made a presentation explaining the referendum.
Though the school district’s board of trustees has talked about a referendum at least since December 2010, Lamb and Danzl said they’ve not attended the board’s meetings on the facilities study, enrollment forecasts, public hearings on bringing it to ballot, or any of the other information sessions they’ve held in the last several years.
But she said another issue for the organization and community members was the timing of putting the question to ballot. Without anything else for county residents to vote on, she said it seems like the district is trying to bring less attention to the issue in the county than they are in the city.
“Almost everyone you talk to out here in the county doesn’t have any idea that there’s an election going on this spring, and they’re upset about it,” she said.
She also said she understands the district has a discretionary fund in its budget every year of about $2.5 million. She said in a period of 20 years, that’s $50 million they could use to renovate the schools, even if it wasn’t used all at once.
Fred McWhorter, chief financial officer for the district, said that $2.5 million fund is actually part of the district’s three-year capital projects fund, which has a new list of needs that aren’t met from year-to-year because of the limits of that fund. He said in order to make it to that $80 million mark, it would take the district 32 years, causing more facilities to age and degrade over that time.
McWhorter said that money is generally obligated every year. Schools send priority needs to the district and administrators choose which issues are most dire and also most feasible, such as carpet repair, roofing, technology costs and others needs.
Danzl said she supports helping schools and making sure children get a good education, but new buildings don’t necessarily accomplish that goal.
SPEAKING TOUR
Though the district’s administration has had restrictions on how it can promote the referendum, they’ve taken advantage of the invitations they’ve gotten from various civic groups in the county to give their pitch. After speaking to One Southern Indiana, the Rotary Club of New Albany and several other local organizations, Snyder said he hoped they’d get the word out to the rest of the community on the details.
Jeff Cummins, president of the Harvest Homecoming Committee, said his organization invited Snyder out to talk. He said after hearing about some of the schools and their conditions, he thought his group was more informed.
“The vast majority of the conversation was that [people] didn’t really understand how bad some of the schools and how outdated they were, down to the size of the cafeterias or the shape of the restrooms, things we would take for granted,” Cummins said. “They weren’t really saying yea or nay, they were just glad they had more information than they had.”
Some of the district’s studies on their facilities have shown cafeterias that are too small for the number of students they have enrolled, causing schools to use more lunch periods than others and possibly reducing instruction time.
Cummins said the Harvest Homecoming Committee didn’t express a consensus opinion, but he thought school improvements could probably benefit students and their education.
Others who got the same presentation weren’t so sure that buildings were that important, though. Matt Oakley, president of the county council, said he’s not convinced that better facilities translate into greater student achievement.
“As a county taxpayer myself, someone with kids, my concern is that the money they spend on the [schools] directly affects the level of education,” Oakley said. “As a taxpayer, I haven’t seen any studies that show that the nicer the schools are, the better the scores are.”
He also took issue with the timing, saying it restricts how many people are likely to participate in the election.
“The purpose of a referendum to me, the state put those laws in place so the public has a voice,” Oakley said. “It seems to me that the right thing to do is to put it on a ballot where most people have a voice, not the least.”
DISTRICT RESPONSE
Snyder said the district has had its share of criticism with the referendum. After closing four schools in 2010 and fielding other concerns, he said he understands why potential voters bring up the argument.
“First of all, I respect their emotional investment in those buildings,” Snyder said. “That’s understandable. But at the same time, unfortunately, it comes down to money. If we were still operating those four schools, it would be even more money that we would be asking from the public. It would be a larger bond issue because at the time we got rid of those schools, they were not in good physical condition.
“I think we’re fortunate in that we’re able to be more efficient and better custodians of the public fund by concentrating on a fewer number of facilities while we’re delivering as good, if not better, instruction.”
He also said that though new buildings aren’t a panacea for how students perform in school, updated facilities mean they can cater to more modern needs, including special education and other programs that didn’t exist at the time older schools were built.
“These facilities primarily, Green Valley and Slate Run, they were constructed during the Eisenhower administration,” Snyder said. “Education has changed remarkably and probably the three biggest areas are in special education, technology and breadth and depth of curriculum. Because of all three of those things, we have to have different types of spaces than we had in the 1950s.”
With the final count coming Tuesday, he said better schools have the opportunity to better the entire community, not just help students. As River Ridge continues to grow and the Ohio River Bridges Project pushes forward, he said that means more people could move into the area and schools will be a big part of the thought process for people in whether to move to Floyd County or not.
“We feel very strongly that a strong public education is a driver for economic growth and development,” Snyder said. “It’s more likely that the community can grow, bring in new business, keep the workforce employed and grow the base so that things like the jail and library can be minimized.”