NEW PALESTINE — Acknowledging that more budget cuts will cause even more pain to its schools, the Southern Hancock School Board voted Tuesday night to let voters decide what should happen next. 
 
   With a unanimous vote, the board decided to seek a referendum for the November election. If approved by the Hancock County Council, it will ask voters to raise property taxes by $1.5 million. That, administrators say, would help offset the drop in revenue that’s expected as a result of property tax caps put in place by the Indiana General Assembly. 

    The district’s financial consultant, Greg Guerrettaz, told board members that if they want to sustain the level of quality education to which residents have become accustomed, a referendum question presented to voters is the best way to do it. 

    “What it says is, we’ve looked under every rock,” Guerrettaz told the board. “There is a huge challenge coming to the district.” 

    A handful of residents attended the meeting. The consensus among those who spoke was that the tax increase is necessary. 

    One taxpayer, Henri Kinson, warned the board and Superintendent Jim Halik not to mince words and statistics in the campaign leading up to the vote. “People will look for reasons to vote no,” said the father of four children who attend school in the district. “I see that there is a need for it. But you have to be honest and not try to play games.” 

    New Palestine resident Randy Faunce, while in favor of the referendum, thought $1.5 million is far too low a figure and suggested the board seek more. He suggested that an increase of even $2.5 million would not be enough. 

    However, Guerrettaz warned that amount would surely meet with defeat in the fall. 

    “It would be too much for taxpayers to bear,” he said. “We have to balance it out with taxpayers’ pocket books.” 

    As proposed, taxpayers with homes valued at $100,000 to $250,000 would pay from $77.70 to $308.44 more per year in 2011. 

   Due to the decrease in funding from the state, the district has already trimmed $1.7 million from the budget since 2009. 

    If approved by voters in the fall, the school corporation would receive the additional property tax money for the general fund for the next seven years. The referendum is on the county council’s July 14 agenda.
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