Franklin City Schools voters rejected a proposed 1.25% earned-income tax Tuesday, marking the sixth time since 2022 that the district has failed to win new money at the ballot box. The defeat leaves Superintendent Michael Sander and the school board confronting a budget already trimmed by millions, with a possible negative cash balance looming within a few years.
A Lopsided Loss At The Polls
According to Journal-News, final unofficial results in Warren County showed voters rejecting the levy 64.01% to 35.99%. The Warren County Post reported the measure, known as Issue 4, was defeated by a vote of 5,115 against to 2,876 in favor, though it noted the results remain unofficial and subject to the county board of elections' canvass and certification process. Franklin City Schools had pitched the proposal as new operating money for a five-year term, explicitly stating it was not a property tax.
The district projected the tax would have raised about $7,375,591 annually, with collections beginning in 2027, per its own materials. If approved, Franklin said it would have rolled back one mill of property taxes and restored services that had already been cut. Franklin schools officials said all cut services could be restored if the levy passed, though with its failure, those reductions will remain in place.
Years Of Cuts Already Made
This was not Franklin's first loss. The district has now failed to pass six requests for new money since 2022, and the cuts have piled up in the meantime. Franklin City Schools said it had cut a cumulative $11,726,500 since the 2022-23 school year, a figure that includes $7.8 million in cuts reported since 2022, alongside an additional $3.15 million trimmed from the 2026-27 budget after the most recent levy failures.
Those reductions have included eliminating full-day kindergarten, busing, and several teacher positions. The district also raised pay-to-participate sports fees, pushing high school fees to $350 per sport and junior high fees to $250 per sport, with no family or individual caps — a sharp jump from the previous $50-per-family cap.
A Deficit On The Horizon
District Treasurer Kevin Hawley said failure to approve the levy renewal would leave the district with a $6 million deficit within two years, and separately said Franklin needs to eliminate another $1 million from its budget to prevent an operating deficit for the 2027-2028 school year. Sander, meanwhile, said the district was looking at a negative cash balance for fiscal year 2029, according to Franklin City Schools.
Sander has pointed to state funding as a central culprit. In a statement reported by the Dayton Daily News, Sander said Ohio provided Franklin about $2.2 million less than the previous year, with roughly $1.5 million less expected the following year. He also said education costs have risen since fiscal year 2015 while state funding has not kept pace, noting Franklin City Schools has received about the same basic state aid as it did back in fiscal year 2015. Sander added that multiple levy failures and repeated cuts have made it challenging to maintain educational opportunities for students.
Looking ahead, Franklin still has a current operating levy up for renewal in 2027, adding another test at the ballot box even as the district absorbs this week's loss. The Franklin Board of Education is expected to discuss the election fallout at its next meeting on Monday.
A Warren County Pattern
Franklin was not alone in Warren County. Lebanon City Schools had defeated an income tax measure by a wide margin, with voters there rejecting a proposed 1% earned-income tax by 10,774 votes to 7,079, according to the Warren County Post. That tax was expected to generate approximately $13.5 million annually for Lebanon's district expenses. Sander said unofficial results showed both Warren County school income-tax proposals were rejected, and at least seven similar measures failed across Greater Cincinnati and the Dayton area.
Lori Raleigh, the school board's vice president, who served on the board when Franklin last passed a new-money levy back in 2014, said she did not know whether the district should pursue more cuts or let the state take over. Raleigh said the economy and residents' concern about spending were factors in the levy defeats, and argued that state unwillingness to adequately fund schools forces local districts to turn to property owners and residents for help.
Franklin's Struggles Reflect A Statewide Trend
Franklin's loss fits a broader pattern across Ohio this election. None of the six proposed school income-tax measures passed statewide on Tuesday, while two of four proposed property-tax measures were successful, according to WVXU. The station also reported that Franklin is anticipating staff cuts for the 2027-2028 academic year or the following one, and that Franklin will see larger class sizes as administrative and classroom positions are reduced.
Nearby districts are bracing for similarly steep reductions. North College Hill's proposed five-year, 1.25% earned-income tax failed, leaving that district needing to cut $1.8 million from next year's budget, while Northwest Local's 1.5% proposal failed and will force $7 million in cuts to its 2027-28 budget, per the same WVXU report. Lebanon City Schools said it will cut 100 staff members to address an $8.5 million budget shortfall, and Fairfield plans to eliminate 32 teaching positions in art, music and physical education. Not every district came away empty-handed — Cincinnati Public Schools voters approved a five-year, 7-mill property-tax levy expected to generate $66.3 million annually starting in 2027.
Statewide, the numbers tell a consistent story about which kinds of measures voters will support. The Ohio School Boards Association reported that 133 Ohio districts had a property-tax or income-tax measure on Tuesday's ballot, though cleveland.com counted 134 school tax issues on the ballot, with 72 passing and 62 failing, a discrepancy the available reporting does not reconcile. Cleveland.com's analysis found voters approved 51 of 63 renewal requests, an 81% passage rate, while just 20 of 69 requests for additional funding passed, a 29% rate — and only five of 39 proposed income-tax increases succeeded, a 13% passage rate. Research cited by the Ohio School Boards Association found that state financial support for Ohio schools rose 19.9% between 2011 and 2024, while inflation climbed 38.9% over the same period.
