BELLBROOK — Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Local School District voters ultimately failed a 7.5 mill replacement levy at the polls May 7, according to unofficial final results.
Greene County Board of Elections unofficial final results show 1,934 votes or 36.68 percent voting for the tax levy and 3,338 or 63.32 percent voting against the tax levy.
The levy was to replace a 1.67 mill levy that passed in 1981.
Passage of the levy would have raised voters’ taxes by $211 annually per $100,000 property valuation. Voters would have paid $21.87 per month or $262.50 annually per $100,000 property valuation. Currently, residents pay $4.28 per month or $51.37 annually per $100,000 property valuation.
According to the Greene County Auditor’s Office, funds from the replacement levy would have generated approximately $4.1 million per year for the district. The levy currently brings in just over $1 million per year. These monies would have gone toward funding every day operations of the school, according to Superintendent Doug Cozad.
“I’m extremely disappointed in the results. It was very unfortunate that there was a lot of misinformation out there about the levy and people, just based on my opinion, used a lot of that misinformation to guide their decision-making and unfortunately, when push comes to shove, students and programs end up losing out,” Superintendent Doug Cozad said.
Cozad said he would look at finances and “everything on the table,” have discussions with the school board over the next few months and go from there in deciding what to do next. He said he was confident that he would recommend the school board to put the levy on the ballot again for the same or similar amount of money in the November election.
“The need for the money is not going to go away,” he said.
