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As always, thoughtful and detailed with many nuances. But a few key questions went unanswered…

For the majority of uninitiated, what does mils translate to in dollars? For a renter? Landlord? $200k home?

And do facilities matter? Piqua has new schools, but a failing system. Concord is older than dirt, but has best scores in the district.

What does $88mm really buy? It’s only $2.3 mm per year for 37 years, 5% of current annual budget.

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Finally, do facilities matter? Well, according to the Ohio Supreme Court, they matter a lot. The DeRolph decision back in the late 1990s is often touted as the definitive decision that found that the state's method of funding education was unconstitutional -- and from the face it's easy to see. Affluent and growing districts had more than enough financial resources to maintain and build facilities; rural districts didn't and their future prospects were bleak. That is why the School Facilities Commission was started, it was a partnership program where poorer districts had most of their buildings funded by the state and were prioritized where more prosoperous districts were not prirotized and received less state funding. But, I understand your point. I can take a classroom of a poor performing school and magically put them in a new building -- will test scores and other determinents of educational success dramatically improve? I am skeptcial More than just a nice building goes into educating kids. But by the same token, the buildings of yesteryear weren't exactly outfitted with the safety and technology aspects of school building design we think of now.

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It's also important to understand that building levys are also capped. In this instance, the 4.66 mill portion of the levy is strictly to build the building and pay off the bond. As the community grows over the 37 year period (by both new houses being built and valuations increasing) the effective 4.66 millage rate will go down over time as new dollars are brought in to pay off the bonds. In other words, the bonds can't take in more than what the outstanding balance on the bonds are worth.

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So, a "mill" is actually a unit of money that is equal to 1/10th a cent. So when a school levy is for 6.96 mills, the tax rate is .00696 cents per every dollar of propety valuation on an annual basis. For a a $100,000 that valuation turns out be $696 per year. However, in Ohio, your taxes are only 35% of the assessed value. So the annual bill ends up being about $244 per year.

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Bill, very well written!! Love the Van Cleve School image @ the beginning! (THANKS)!! 🙂 NOW is the time for Troy, Ohio to invest in NEW schools that will continue to enrich the educational experience for MANY generations to come!!!!!!!!! Please vote YES for PROGRESS!! #thanks!! 🙂

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