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Home > Blogs > Springfield Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > December > 01
Monday, December 1, 2008
Districts discuss “worst-case scenario” funding numbers
Clark County school districts are looking at losses of estimated tax revenue for anywhere from a couple thousand to half a million dollars, according to estimates of “worst case scenarios” from the county auditor’s office.
Nearly 3,000 appeals of land assessments were filed when it was revealed that there were doubts about the numbers from an outside company hired to perform the appraisals. As the board of revisions has heard those cases, districts have been left in limbo on the future of their local finances.
My colleague Bridgette Outten reported last week that Springfield City Schools stood to lose as much as $550,000 from what officials had projected for property tax collections.
It looks like Springfield is the worst of the worst case scenarios.
Clark-Shawnee Treasurer Julie Turner said the district is looking at up to a $56,000 difference from estimates last year and after the completion of the appeals.
“We have to continue doing business and we have to make it work within our budget,” Turner said. “We are going to assess the situation based on what it will mean in a 5-year forecast.”
The change is only about .002 percent of the district’s annual $22 million budget, so the district is looking at long-term planning more than the short-term, she said.
Northeastern schools is expecting a change of about $15,000; the district’s annual budget is about $15 million, said Treasurer David Bollheimer.
“There’s always fluctuations,” he said. “A one-time $15,000 hit obviously isn’t going to kill us.”
The district will be monitoring the situation in the future to make sure it doesn’t become a trend, he said.
The auditor’s office is projecting a decrease of $63,000 for Tecumseh Local Schools, said Treasurer Debra Decker, who had estimated about that much. It has been include in the five-year forecast for 2009 and after.
Southeastern schools is projected to have a decrease of $7,000 because of the appeals, said Treasurer Brad McKee.
Northeastern and Greenon school treasurers Denise Schneider and Dawn Weller said that outstanding appeals on properties in the district, particularly commercial and industrial properties, could change the current estimates.
Northeastern’s property tax collections could decrease by as much as $55,000 according to current estimates, said Schneider.
Greenon is currently looking at a $6,000 increase but when the to-be-determined appeals are settled, the loss could be more than $20,000, said Weller.
Greenon schools was projected to go to voters in 2009 for a tax issue; the decrease could be included in that and would have a very small impact on the overall issue, she said. The district has not yet determined what size the issue would be.
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Would you put a GPS tracker on your teen’s car?
Last night while I was watching TV I heard a commercial directed at parents of teenagers.
The ad was for a GPS tracking system — not one of the handy little GPS systems that give us directions to our destinations but one that allows parents to know exactly where their child’s vehicle is.
A quick Google search reveals that there are a lot of these trackers out there for sale.
The GPS tracking systems can monitor not only your child’s location and how long they’ve been there but can also tell you if he or she goes over a speed designated by you — a feature I imagine some parents might find more attractive than the locating part.
There’s some more information on the Youth Driving Safe Web site. YDS is a group that, according to its Web site, offers low-cost trackers to parents to promote better team driving.
Would you buy one of these devices?
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