By the Associated Press in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel:
Indiana school districts that won voters' approval last week for the majority of the tax increases they had sought to boost school funding may be becoming more skilled at selling the public on the need for those tax hikes, say experts who've tracked Indiana's school referendums for several years.
Five of the seven referendums on last Tuesday's ballots around Indiana were approved by voters, and one of the two losing districts may seek a recount after its measure failed by only four votes.
That scorecard is part of an improving track record for school referendums seeking property tax increases to pay for school construction projects or shore up cash-strapped general funds. State lawmakers in 2008 established referendums as the mechanism for school-funding requests in response to taxpayers' outcry about property tax growth.
In the first two years, from November 2008 to November 2010, only 24 of 60 school-funding ballot measures — or 40 percent — won passage. But since May 2011, voters have endorsed 64 percent (18 of 28) of tax increase requests, said Larry DeBoer, a Purdue University agricultural economist who studies local government and public policy.
"So while the overall record is about 50-50, the fact is that lately nearly two-thirds have been passing, and I can give you a half-dozen hypotheses," he said.
DeBoer said one explanation may be that school officials are giving the public increasingly sophisticated pitches about why they need more money. Another is that voters are more willing to help out their local district now that the economy is emerging from the deep recession that prompted Indiana to cut $300 million in public school funding.
He said lawmakers' decision a couple of years ago to loosen tough restrictions that limited school superintendents' and school board members' ability to publicly campaign for the referendums may have also made a difference.
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