It was a lovefest of a political nature at the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) meeting Wednesday night. The HSE School Board was joined by the Fishers City Council, along with Mayor Scott Fadness.
Mayor Fadness stated firmly he is behind the referendum on the November ballot to fund HSE Schools for 8 years, beginning in 2024. The City Council unanimously voted to support a resolution urging taxpayers to approve the referendum.
I began receiving statements from incumbent members of the city council and candidates for the council, all voicing clear support for this referendum. It appeared that there was a bipartisan group forming to ask voters to support the local schools financially.
The only exception to this is one school board member. The board voted 6-0 to place the referendum on the ballot, with Tiffany Pascoe choosing to abstain. I only had a moment to speak with Ms. Pasco outside the meeting room Wednesday night, and her only comment referred to issues she appears to have with how budgets are done in the district.
But, with that one exception, the political world of Fishers appears to strongly back approval of the HSE referendum.
There has been a lot said and written about this referendum. It can be a mind-boggling experience to wrap your mind around all the numbers and details surrounding a school referendum vote in Indiana, but I will give it a try as it applies to this HSE referendum.
First, let’s read how the ballot measure will be worded for the November general election:
Shall Hamilton Southeastern Schools continue to impose increased property taxes paid to the school corporation by homeowners and businesses for eight (8) years immediately following the holding of the referendum for the purpose of funding academic and educationally related programs, maintaining class sizes, retaining and attracting of teachers, essential safety initiatives, and changing the previously approved maximum referendum tax rate from $0.2275 to $0.1995? The property tax increase requested in this referendum was originally approved by the voters in May, 2016 and if extended will increase the average property tax paid to the school corporation per year on a residence within the school corporation by 20.8% and if extended will increase the average property tax paid to the school corporation per year on a business property within the school corporation by 20.8%.
Some say the rate would actually decrease if this referendum passes, yet the word “increase” or “Increased” can be found all over this language. That is required by state law. The local school board had the ability to write only a small part of the language and the entire wording is subject to state approval in the end.
The reference to a tax increase means passage of the referendum rate would allow the HSE District to have a rate above what the corporation would have without a referendum. HSE Schools passed a referendum in 2016 of .2275. The rate the board is asking taxpayers to approve in the referendum is .1995, less than the previous referendum rate.
It should be noted that the state of Indiana provides support to local school districts on a per-student basis. There is a complex formula to determine the per-student support each school district receives from the state.
The school district with the lowest per-student funding from the state is Zionsville, with the second lowest being Carmel. Both Carmel and Zionsville have operating referendum funding in place. The third-lowest school district in state per-student support is HSE.
For example, Carmel-Clay Schools have an operating referendum rate of .2400, Noblesville’s referendum tax rate is .3700 and Westfield-Washington’s rate is .1700. Bottom line is this – suburban school districts need an operating referendum to properly fund local schools.
I have covered HSE Schools for about 12 years and generally found the district to be careful with its money. The central office staff is fairly small for the fourth-largest school system in the state (based on student enrollment). I have found every HSE Chief Financial Officer, including the current one, Katy Dowling, to be looking for ways to reasonably save money on a regular basis.
Ms. Dowling provided an example to the board Wednesday of a home in the HSE District valued at $319,500. Once all deductions and the property tax cap are considered, assuming the referendum passes, in 2024 the lower referendum rate would save that homeowner about $81, or less than $7 a month if the homeowner pays property taxes through a mortgage escrow system.
So, what would happen if voters choose to reject the referendum, in the fall general election? Ms. Dowling did cover that with the board Wednesday night.
The largest line item would require layoffs of teachers, saving $12.5 million and resulting in larger class sizes. There would be a “restructuring” of the employee health benefit plan amounting to $4 million. For the full listing, see the graphic at the end of this post.
There is much more that could be written, but this post is already long enough. Suffice to say that voters have a lot to consider before casting their ballots in the fall election.
A Political Action Committee, Advance HSE, has been formed to advocate a yes vote. It is not known whether there will be organized opposition to this referendum, but if so, we will be hearing from them as well.
I will be doing my best to cover this important referendum vote this fall, along with the very important city election.
What seems to be missing in all of the discussions are the much higher appraised home values the past few years. I definitely paid much higher school taxes the past few years regardless that the % has been the same. The amount collected per student over the past few years due to the tax and what that number looks like with no tax and with new referendum rate taking into consideration the home appraised values in Fishers. What’s the average or the mean home appraised values in Fishers, surely it’s more than 319K. I’m all for approving the referendum but the discussions likely leave most with little clarity. Indiana lawmakers also have not been favorable to public schools. And even the wording required by the state is not straight forward (typical for IN)
The CFO addressed assess valuation changes as well as deduction changes that have or will be happening along with tax caps. The presentation can be found at the HSE schools web site and the slides can be found liked online to the last board meeting’s agenda.
Also mentioned were changes such as schools having to cover books. While the state is providing some of the funds, they are not expected to cover everything.
The end result is there are multiple factors impacting the rate, but the net result is that the district is lowering it. The rate is also a cap. If assessed values continue at a high rate, the district can reduce the referendum rate over the next 8 years. If the assesses values suddenly stopped growing, they cannot increase this rate.
I see several advance HSE yard signs and I was wondering why there’s a politcal push to the referendum. Thus I find this, and other articles, seemingly pushing the same agenda.
And why is that? Because the rest of the story is NOT being told.
I find this “you’ll save money on property taxes” argument, amoung others for this referendum to be faulty (and that’s being kind).
To wit: say a home’s assessed value in 2016 was $300K. At the .2275 tax rate the property tax would be $683. Now fastforward to 2023 and the home’s value is $400 (probably more like $500K). At the proposed 2024 rate of .1995 the tax is $798…over a $100 increase. So by what math do “they” get an $81 decrease. Oh wait, I know, its that “new” math!
Is my old school math wrong or is the referendum’s proponents pushing propaganda and fabrication of saving property tax dollars?!
The rate would need to be .1721 or less to reduce the tax using the above example.
And what happens if the referendum is voted down? Does the tax rate revert to the pre-2016 rate? NO WHERE can I fund that answer.
So if HSE schools get the yes vote they KEEP all that on the list in the article yet I don’t see what will be added with the extra $100+ per household? Hmm.
And just because the admin staffing number is lower than other school systems of similar size doesn’t mean the number isn’t excessive. Admin staffing takes $ directly away from the student. The admin staffing has been a massive bloat for decades (I know why, rules and regulations so that needs a SWEEPING reduction).
Something stinks like Geist Lake.
You make some valid points that the YES people seem to keep to themselves.
Rick, you bring up points that a logical person would ask. What has happened to the increased taxes taken from the home property increase, which has been significant?
If the 2016 referendum is not extended I assume our taxes would be even further lowered, but can’t find a straight answer. Very misleading to word the new referendum in what I call misleading language.
I support our schools/teachers/kids just prefer the information is delivered in a transparent method, it makes me want to ask more questions the way this is being presented.
I’ll viote Yes because I value education even though my kids have long graduated and in graduate school. Definitely a lot of poor communications regarding this school tax. Another way to present this should be expected $/student 2024 – amount from state and amount from taxes over the last 5 years and predicted out 5 years. With number of students decreasing and the town/city growing slower these numbers could be interesting to see. Yes we would expect the number to increase each year and I’m all for paying teachers a much better pay. But it’s interesting how the first things they often say would be cut are the most important – class size and teacher salary. There are many other possibilities of where to save costs yet still have an excellent top tier education. Really wish our politicians wouldn’t have taken money from public schools and give it to private or religious affiliated schools with vouchers. Vote Dem!
My property taxes have gone up significantly in the last few years due to the increase in assessed value. Publicizing that property tax rates will go down and save money is not accurate in this scenario. I am a senior on a fixed income, and the constant increase in property tax amounts have definitely had an effect. I do believe teachers need to be paid, class sizes need to stay smaller, but not sure I can afford to continue with this. I feel the information publicized about this is quite misleading.
You can get an estimate of the impact of the referendum on your taxes using the calculator at the following link. You just enter your address and do a couple of clicks. My taxes go down in 2024 based on the change.
https://calculator.referendum.expert/