The North Union Local Schools District plans to put an emergency levy renewal on the November general election ballot.
North Union’s Treasurer and CFO Scott Maruniak recently told the board of education “it is a small emergency levy.” The levy will raise an estimated $210,000 each fiscal year. The levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home a total of $31.50 annually.
“Then to add to it, it is still eligible for homestead/rollback credit. This lowers it (to) about $27.56 annually (for homeowners),” Maruniak told the Journal-Tribune.
He added that the district’s emergency levy collects at 0.90 mills. He said taxpayers would not see any increase in their millage.
Maruniak suggested the district put the emergency levy renewal on the November ballot.
“If it was to not pass, we then have all of ’24 to continue to put that on the ballot,” he explained.
Maruniak said the district usually renews emergency levels for 10 years, which is the maximum amount of years by law.
Funds raised through the emergency levy renewal would be used for general operating expenses, including salaries, benefits, supplies and electricity, Maruniak explained.
He also told the board he updated the district’s five-year financial forecast.
For the 2023 fiscal year, the district is expected to bring in $18,899,535 in total operational revenue. With total operational expenses at $19,075,047, the district is expected to have an operational loss of $175,513.
The district started the fiscal year with $12,900,577 in carryover cash and will likely end the fiscal year on June 30 with about $11,782,904 in available cash balance.
Through the five-year forecast, Maruniak showed the board the district will “potentially be going into deficit spending.” By 2027, the district’s operational loss is predicted to increase to roughly $3.85 million.
Maruniak hopes by then the district will start receiving payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) installments from the solar companies who are developing projects within the school district.
Maruniak said the five-year forecast shows an increase in capital outlay in fiscal year 2024 because the funding for the playground project will come from the general fund. He has previously told the Journal-Tribune that the final selections for the playground equipment and the fall protection surface will be approved around February.
“We will then move forward with the project,” he said. “The project should start shortly after school lets out for the summer. The project will be completed before the start of the 2023-2024 school year.”
Additionally, Maruniak said the district is expected to pay off a bond that passed in 2002 for construction of the North Union Elementary School and the addition to the high school in 2004-2005 on Dec. 1, 2027.
When the district was originally issued the bond, it was to be paid off on Dec. 1, 2030, Maruniak told the Journal-Tribune. However, through a refund from the Ohio School Construction Commission and refinancing of the bond, the bond will now be paid off three years early. The original bond amount was $12,999,989.20.
The bond levy is being collected at 2.2 mills, Maruniak said.
In planning for the future, Maruniak suggested the board could do a no new millage levy, an additional bond issue or an additional permanent improvement levy.
Maruniak said the district would “probably want to be on the ballot in 2026.”
Maruniak further explained that the district has transferred most of its funds from STAR Ohio to Richwood Banking Co. because “Richwood Bank is matching what STAR Ohio was doing.” He said if Richwood Bank no longer meets the interest rates offered at STAR Ohio, the funds would be transferred back “to make sure we maximize the return on investment.”
The treasurer said the district has slightly more than $1 million in an account at STAR Ohio, with the majority of the district’s other funds at Richwood Bank.
“Out of our total funds, we have about $3 million in CDs,” Maruniak said. “Unfortunately, some of those we purchased when the market was dramatically down.”
He said some of the CDs, or certificates of deposit, have “very poor interest rates,” but they were the best CDs the district could obtain at the time.
“As CDs do mature, we can go back on out and purchase as high as we can,” Maruniak said.
He also told the board the district recently paid for and received three school buses that were ordered almost a year ago. He said the buses cost about $92,000 each. He added that bids for the “exact same bus” if he ordered one today would be roughly $116,000. He said a state grant provided $45,000 for each bus. The remaining costs came from the general fund.
“Usually bus purchases come from either the general fund or the permanent improvement fund,” Maruniak said.