From WNDU.com:
Next week’s primary election could be do or die for one Michiana school corporation.
Voters in the Oregon Davis School Corporation face a referendum that asks them to agree to pay more in school property taxes—about $400,000 a year more.
“We’ve lost over $570,000 the last three years, this last year we were cut almost $400,000,” said Oregon Davis School Board President Chistopher Lawrence. “With those cuts, the cuts we’d have to make in the school are next to impossible in my opinion, I don’t feel it’s right to make those cuts to the student’s education, so what we had to do was place a referendum on the ballot.”
If the referendum fails, some say the district will be forced to seriously consider a merger with a neighboring district.
“The school’s operated in the black until this year, right now we’re having to operate out of our rainy day fund to pay our bills,” said Lawrence. “If we don’t get this passed, we won’t have enough income to pay the school’s bills and we will have to look at consolidation.”
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While the average homeowner would pay about $11.55 more a year if the referendum passes, much of the burden is likely to fall on farmers, given the agricultural makeup of the community.
“It’s tough,” said Farmer Curt Hayes. “It’s gonna be tough, a lot of us farmers are going to take a lot of hits.” Yet Hayes used his tractor to lead the caravan of supporters today. “Farming has been good, a lot of guys can’t complain, farming’s been good to us these last couple years so we’ve got to give back to the community, we’ve got to give back a little bit.”
Oregon Davis is a small rural district of about 700 students.
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Since Indiana law allowed school corporations to place a general fund referendum on the ballot in 2008, 34 attempts have been made: 16 passed and 18 failed.
Next week, both the Oregon Davis and Duneland school systems will place general fund requests on the ballot.
http://www.wndu.com/localnews/headlines/Oregon_Davis_taxpayers_asked_to_pay_more_150236395.html
