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Lake County Financing District…”Are You Ready to Cry Uncle?”

By Brian Massie on August 19, 2019 • ( 0 )

Updated: 8/21/99…many thanks to our Concord lobbyist for correcting us.

On the November 5th ballot, taxpayers in the Madison, Painesville, Perry, and Riverside School districts will be asked to pass a 4.90 mill renewal levy for the Lake County School Financing District.

The effective millage on this levy has been reduced due to H.B. 920 and is also subject to State credits of 10% (State rollback) and 2.5% (owner occupancy credit). So the effective millage is 2.277721 and will cost taxpayers $69.76 per year per $100,000 of the appraised (market) value of their home.. [$35 x 2.277721 x 87.5%] It also means that you need a minimum of $232.53 per year in annual income to pay the tax (HAT = $232.53 / .3) to avoid being priced out of your home.

From a 2018 post https://lobbyistsforcitizens.com/2018/01/09/lake-county-financing-district-update/ we learned the following about school financing districts:

A county school financing district is a group of independent local school districts that agree to pool their valuation and request a levy to support specified educational programs across the entire group of districts.

The Lake County Financing District is made up of Riverside Schools, Perry Schools, Painesville Schools and Madison Schools. The tax is levied only in those four school districts and distributed among those same four districts.

Funds are used for the provision of necessary personnel, materials, supplies, and transportation for instruction in language arts, social studies, mathematics, fine and practical arts, health and physical education, science and business education. The funds are divided based on the proportionate share of the student enrollment for each district. In the case of Riverside, they receive just over $2.2 million each year that is used to support approximately 33 teacher salaries in those core subject matters.

Here is the Schedule A – Estimate of Property Tax Revenue received from the Lake County Auditor’s office: LAKE COUNTY SCHOOL FINANCING DISTRICT

We received the following 2018 financial information from Mr. L. Greg Slemons, Treasurer for the Lake and Geauga County Educational Service Center.

Total Revenue $6,024,984.29

Expenditures:

Distribution to Perry Schools $ 896,137.49
Distribution to Riverside Schools $2,138,221.92

Distribution to Madison Schools $1,328,703.84

Distribution to Painesville Schools $1,569,724.06

Total Distribution to Schools $5,932,787.31 98.5%

Auditor & Treasurer Fees $ 45,056.07 .8%

Educational Service Center Fees $ 30,124.92 .5%
Collection on Delinquent Taxes $ 11,084.05 .2%
All Other Misc. Expenses $ 5,931.94 –

Total Expenditures $6,024,984.29

We will continue to update as we gather more information about this creative way to extract additional property taxes from the citizens of Lake County.