The Daily Standard
Story Archive
By WILLIAM KINCAID, ABIGAIL MILLER and ERIN GARDNER
newsroom@dailystandard.com
Election signs in a front yard on Main Street in Celina.
CELINA - With Election Day now just 32 days away and early voting set to start next week, voters in Mercer and Auglaize counties are preparing to make decisions on city, village, township and school district leaders as well as a variety of levy proposals to fund government operations and public services.
In a series of articles over the next week, The Daily Standard will preview the levy proposals and contested races that voters in Mercer County and western Auglaize County will find on the Nov. 4 ballot. The candidates for Celina City Schools Board of Education were introduced in an article in the Sept. 25 edition, which is available online at dailystandard.com.
The registration deadline to vote is Oct. 6. Early in-person voting in Mercer County begins Oct. 7 in the courthouse auditorium. Absentee voting by mail runs Oct. 7-Oct. 28. On Election Day polls will be open 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
We start today with a rundown of the levies voters will be asked to consider in the various taxing districts in Mercer County.
Election signs in Celina.
Voters in the Celina City Schools district will decide on a five-year, 7.3-mill emergency renewal levy on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.
Generating $4.9 million or about 14% of the district's annual operating budget, the levy is set to expire at the end of the year.
Should the levy fail, it would be difficult to make ends meet, school board member Carl Huber said at a recent meet-the-candidate event sponsored by the Celina Education Association.
"We will have to look at multiple levels of cuts across the district. Unfortunately, that will most likely include staffing cuts, transportation, maintenance, purchasing, etc," Huber wrote in a questionnaire furnished by CEA.
Superintendent Brooke Gessler has also underscored the paramount importance of the levy, particularly in light of the fact the district stands to lose over $1 million in state funding, according to funding simulators provided by Buckeye Association of School Administrators and Ohio Association of School Business Officials.
"So to lose an additional over $4.9 million on top of what we already know would be just shy of devastating. We would have to make some really, really, really big shifts in what we do and how we do it, because that's a big chunk of money," Gessler said at an August school board meeting.
If approved, the levy would commence in 2026 and first be due in 2027, costing the owner of a $100,000 home $256 annually.
The emergency levy was first approved by voters in 2011, and has been renewed every five years since. Operating funds derived from the levy can be spent on staff salaries and benefits, curriculum and supplies, maintenance, utilities and insurance.
"An emergency levy is a local property tax that generates a fixed dollar amount for a school district each year for a set number of years," a levy fact sheet issued by the school district states. "This type of levy provides a predictable amount of revenue, which creates stability in a district's budget."
An emergency levy may be proposed to avoid an operating deficit.
Coincidentally, the Ohio Senate on Wednesday moved to override Gov. Mike DeWine's veto of state operating budget line-item No. 66.
Among other things, the General Assembly's provision removes the authority for political subdivisions to charge new replacement tax levies or levy fixed-sum emergency or substitute levies, as well as renewal with an increase levies and combined school district income tax and fixed-sum property tax levies, according to a news release from State Rep. Adam Mathews, R-Lebanon.
"With the Senate voting to override the governor's veto of line-item 66 yesterday, it makes this levy all the more important because we are not able to put any type of fixed-sum levy on the ballot and a renewal on the ballot after this one," Gessler told The Daily Standard. "So it's all the more important because if this were not to pass, we would have to go and ask for a new operating levy and it could not be an emergency, it could not be a substitute, it could not be a fixed sum."
- W.K.
Mercer County voters are set to decide on a new Mercer County Health District property tax levy during the Nov. 4 general election.
If approved by voters, the levy would collect $434,062 annually, costing the owner of a $100,000 home $9 each year. The levy would be placed on the tax list beginning in 2025, with taxes first due in calendar year 2026.
The county health agency currently collects around $325,000 in inside millage from the politicial subdivisions, an amount health officials decided over the summer was not enough, as the department saw deficit spending of about $220,000 in calendar year 2023 and $275,000 in calendar year 2024, forcing it to rely on an ever-dwindling carryover balance.
The levy attempt was strongly recommended by the county's budget commission in the spring.
"They feel that we need to attempt another levy," county health administrator Michelle Kimmel said at a previous health board meeting. "(They said that the appropriation increase) will stop the hemorrhaging, but it won't stop the bleeding. If things keep going the way they are, it could be pretty serious."
Responsibilities of the district include preventing and controlling the spread of infectious diseases; assessing and monitoring environmental factors that potentially impact public health, including air, water, soil and food; and assuring quality in health care facilities and services and environmental health.
The health district's previous three levy attempts failed, most recently at the November 2022 general election.
- A.M.
Fort Recovery voters are set to decide on an income tax raise during November's general election, which if passed, is expected to supplant four property tax levies currently in place. Village officials have vowed to "zero out" the property tax levies if the measure passes.
The levy would push up the village income tax from 1% to 1.5%. Should the levy be passed by voters, councilors pledged to stop collecting revenue from their four real estate tax levies on the books that total 9.8 mills and bring in $294,583 annually.
The current 1% income tax provides about $1 million in tax revenue each year. Increasing the rate to 1.5% would generate an addition $500,000 to $750,000 a year, based on the local economy, according to village administrator Randy Diller.
Increasing the income tax rate to 1.5% and zeroing out the property taxes would result in a net gain of $200,000 to $450,000 a year for the village, again based on the local economy.
Property tax bills would tumble 14% for owner-occupied homes, 12% for non-owner occupied residences and 18.4% for a commercial business or industry, Diller previously estimated.
- A.M.
Voters will decide the fate of the township's 2.5-mill renewal fire levy on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The levy, which is used for the purpose of fire protection, will generate $63,505 if passed, according to the ballot information. The owner of a $100,000 home would pay $42.
Voters passed an increase of the levy amount to 2 mills, up from the previous 1.4 mills in 2010. In 2015, voters approved adding another 0.5 mills.
- E.G.
