By Megan Alley
Sun Reporter
The New Richmond Exempted Village School District Board of Education is expected to soon pass legislation to help get the tax issue on the March 2020 ballot.
During the board of education’s most recent regular meeting on Oct. 21, Superintendent Tracey Miller spoke to the board’s upcoming plan to pass a resolution of necessity as the first step in placing a tax levy on the March 3, 2020 ballot.
“We’ve had so much conversation in the past several months on a levy request; what that might look like, how much, and so forth,” Miller said.
The board is planning to officially take up the matter at its next meeting on Nov. 18.
The action would request that the Clermont County County Auditor determine the millage required to generate $4.23 million annually, and the district’s property valuation.
The school district, guided by the board of education, is looking for ways to replace the revenue it lost from the closing of the Beckjord power plant and the devaluation of the Zimmer plant; $8 million annually.
Earlier this year, the school board approved a consolidation plan aimed at reducing spending by $3 million, but they still have another estimated $5 million to make up and prevent the district from going into fiscal emergency.
Until recently, the board has been considering a levy plan – 8.9 mills – that would deliver some $4 million in tax revenue, combined with another $1 million in cuts by 2022.
“We have talked about an 8.9-mills request … that still doesn’t even take us back to even; we’re still behind within three years of making more cuts,” Miller explained.
In turn, talks have recently turned to asking voters to support a levy of 9.4 mills, which include funding for three key areas that the public, when surveyed, said it wants to see made a priority – updates and curriculum, safety and security, and access to current technology.
“If we want New Richmond to continue to be New Richmond, we need those things to happen,” Miller said.
The extra millage would bring in another, roughly, $230,000, which would be earmarked for the three focused areas.
“We don’t want to be sitting here a year from now asking ourselves how we’re going to pay for new textbooks, or how we’re going to pay for safety and security mechanisms,” Miller said.
The board estimated that a 9.4-mills levy would cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 about $329 a year, or $27.42 a month.