State Cuts Total About $3.5 Million a Year for Mayfield District

Mayfield City School District will be getting about $7 million less from the state in the next two years. The district has a $60 million annual budget.

On top of a cut in foundation funding, school district officials have now been told how much tangible property tax reimbursement to expect. Mayfield, which has been getting about $9 million a year from both sources, will get $5.8 million for the 2011-2012 school year and $5.1 million in 2012-2013.

"Those losses in dollars are real and they will be significant," said district Treasurer Scott Snyder.

There has been no word about funds for gifted aides, special education, transportation and training, which were about $700,000 a year but now appear to be gone. Mayfield had been getting $3 million in foundation funding, but figures from the state list the amount at $2.3 million for 2010-2011, which suggests that those items were taken out of the foundation funding formula.

"We can assume that those other funding pieces are gone," Snyder said.

Snyder said the district budgeted for a 20 percent drop in foundation funds based on talks with state officials. But there was no word about cutting the tangible property tax reimbursement, which was supposed to compensate districts for their loss when the tax was eliminated in 2005. The payments were scheduled to be phased out over a 13-year period.

"Nothing had ever been mentioned that they would accelerate that phase-out. They're changing the rules midstream," he said.

The tangible property tax was eliminated to make Ohio more competitive and was replaced with a commercial activities tax that is collected and used by the state, Snyder said. In effect, the changes mean the state will be collecting tax money that had been going to local school districts.

And districts have not been given much time to deal with the loss of that reimbursement, Snyder added. The state's two-year budget takes effect July 1.

"We have a couple of months to react to a $2.4 million reduction in that funding stream," he said.

Mayfield school officials had announced they would not seek a levy in 2011, even though it was time based on a three-year levy cycle. Snyder said the school board and superintendent will have to explore options on how to address the cuts in state funds.

That means looking at ways to cut expenses or increase revenues.

"We want our community to know that we are experiencing a significant loss in revenue," Snyder said.