Tuesday, July 25, 2000
Monroe schools fight tax battle
Collection authority in dispute
By Sue Kiesewetter
Enquirer contributor
MONROE — City school officials say they are prepared to take aggressive steps to collect taxes that were passed when the district was part of the Middletown/Monroe Schools.
Board member Suzi Rubin said Monday their attorney, William Deters, has been studying several options and will discuss them today at a news conference at the high school.
Mr. Deters could not be reached for comment Monday.
“If the (existing) taxes don't roll over, we'll have to put something on the ballot,” Mrs. Rubin said.
“We can't survive (without) tax money.”
It has been the district's position that under the law used to form the Monroe Local Schools, all existing tax issues — continuing or emergency operating levies, bond issues and others — would automatically be collected in the new district. Budgets were prepared based on that assumption.
But the Ohio Department of Taxation said that isn't so. Part of the new district includes land from the Lebanon City Schools. Residents who live there did not vote on tax issues for the Middletown/Monroe Schools.
“Our opinion has not changed,” Gary Gudmundson, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Taxation, said on Monday. “Our opinion was they (couldn't) do what they want to do.”
Should that stand — an opinion has been requested from the Ohio attorney gen eral — the Monroe board pwon't seek a tax increase this year, she said.
“We'll get through it,” Mrs. Rubin said. “We're still crunching the numbers. Our goal is to keep the homeowner's cost the same.
“It might mean a little less money to the district overall,” she said.
Should the board have to resubmit tax issues, Mrs. Rubin said it might do so as early as the Nov. 7 ballot. The deadline for putting an issue on that ballot is Aug. 24.
“It would be nice to have this piece behind us so we can concentrate on the facilities need,” Mrs. Rubin said.
For the past several months the board has been concentrating on hiring staff, ordering portable classrooms and other start-up issues.
Once school begins, Mrs. Rubin said, the Facility Committee will begin looking at the new district's long-term space needs.
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