Lakota board sets timeline for a fall levy
May 6, 2011
Treasurer Jenni Logan presented the board with a list of recommendations from the district’s finance committee, which recommended that a levy this fall should be a short-term, perhaps three to five years, solution to the district’s current budget problems to give officials time to generate a long term plan, and that the levy should not be for more millage than has been asked for in the past, which is 6.5 mills.
Logan said the committee also recommended that the district continue to look for ways to reduce its budget and “don’t bring back everything you’ve cut” should a short-term levy pass.
“We can start moving into the long-term discussion more because I do worry if we only talk about this in isolation,” Logan said.
“We need to build the long-term plan,” agreed board President Joan Powell, “but I don’t think it will be built before we have a chance to decide on this levy.”
“With the short-term strategy, you would also want to see a model and see exactly what the impact would be and what it would take to sustain us until the next levy,” Logan said.
“It makes no sense to go to the community with a short-term levy without telling them what’s coming next,” said board member Lynda O’Connor.
“The irony of this whole thing,” Powell said, “is that people seemed to think that a 10-year levy was too much of a burden.”
The board agreed to hold another work session prior to June 27 to discuss the next round of budget cuts and to create a model to tell the public what the cuts would mean to the district. Then at the board’s regular meeting on June 27, they will present the finance committee’s final recommendations. At the July 11 meeting, the board would hear the superintendent’s and treasurer’s recommendations and would vote on a “resolution of necessity” that would be required by the Butler County Auditor to place a levy on the Nov. 8 general election. On Aug. 8, the board would present the next round of budget cuts and adopt a resolution to proceed with the levy. And then on Aug. 27, the board would adopt another round of cuts that would take place if the levy fails.
“I’ve got a feeling we’re going to have a busy summer,” said board member Ben Dibble.