Strongsville Schools Ask Residents To Fight Impending Funding Loss

STRONGSVILLE, OH - The Strongsville School District is asking residents to send letters to State Senator Matt Dolan and State Representative Matt Patton urging them to oppose Governor John Kasich's proposed state budget. The district says the budget, as currently written, could cause a $3.5 million loss for Strongsville Schools in just one year.

Strongsville Superintendent Cameron Ryba testified before the House Finance Subcomittee on Primary and Secondary Education on March 7, arguing against Kasich's proposed budget. He outlined how the loss of the Tangible Personal Property (TPP) tax reimbursement funding would severely hamstring his school district.

The TPP tax was repealed in 2005. At that time, $1.2 billion in TPP-sourced funding was being funneled into Ohio schools from the state. To compensate for the loss of funding, the tax has been rolled back in degrees, staggering the loss of funding. The state has also compensated schools for the loss of TPP funding. Under the proposed budget, both of those sources of school funding would disappear. The state budget must be approved by July 1, 2017.

In the district's form letters to Patton and Dolan, available in full below, Strongsville says it will lose $857,432 in direct TPP funding in FY 2018 and $2,252,656 in TPP compensation funding in FY 2018 versus the previous year. Combined with an estimated $463,655 loss in general state funding to schools, the district could lose a little more than $3.5 million in one year.

"We cannot continue to achieve the vision of our Governor and the expectations of our legislature and community if the decisions made at the state level alleviate those very opportunities we have been challenged to create through the continued erosion of the state's financial obligation to appropriately fund and support public education," Ryba said in his testimony. to the House Subcomittee in March.

In its Mustang Moments newsletters, the Strongsville School district asked residents and supporters to send pre-formatted letters to Dolan and Patton, outlining the loss the district could face in terms of funding, and asking the officials to oppose Kasich's budget proposal.

You can read one of the form letters below:

State Aid and Tangible Personal Property Tax Funding for Strongsville City Schools

March, 2017

Representative Tom Patton

Ohio House District 7

77 South High Street – 14th Floor

Columbus, OH 43215

Dear Representative Patton:

As you know, on January 30, 2017, Governor John Kasich presented his fourth biennium budget to the legislators. The proposed budget will have a negative impact on many public schools around our state, including Strongsville City Schools. As a resident of Strongsville, I urge you to reconsider approval of this budget bill. The bill will have the following negative impact on our District:

• The governor's proposal indicates that the Strongsville City School District is projected to receive $463,665 less state aid in both FY18 and FY19 when compared to FY17, totaling $910,996 less over two years.
• The phase-out of the Tangible Personal Property Tax Reimbursement will reduce state payments to the district by up to $857,432.
• In FY17, the district received a supplement from the state of $2,252,656 because of lost Tangible Personal Property revenue. This supplement under current law goes away for FY18.

The table below summarizes the impact of the Governor’s budget and current law for the Strongsville City School District:

The projected impact of the Governor’s budget proposal and existing law would pose serious challenges for our District over the next several years. We ask that you continue to be mindful of this impact on Strongsville City Schools and help us continue to advocate on behalf of our students by challenging this budget bill as it works its way through the legislature.

Sincerely,
(YOUR NAME HERE)

Photo from Pixabay