Voters say yes to Monroe County Community School Corporation referendum

The new referendum will raise taxes on the average Monroe County home — one with a market value of about $217,000 — by about $125 a year. 

Superintendent Jeff Hauswald spoke to The Herald-Times around 8 p.m. when the early, incomplete vote count indicated the referendum would pass.

"To the people who voted yes, I would say thank you, we are humbled. We see it as an investment and we take their investment seriously," Hauswald said. "We commit to spending the funds exactly as we have indicated that we will spend it."

MCCSC's last referendum, passed in 2016, was for 11.5 cents per $100 of assessed value. The corporation has relied on the additional funding since 2010, when then-Gov. Mitch Daniels ordered the state education budget be cut by $300 million and the MCCSC was forced to lay off more than 60 teachers.