Woodmore schools to retry for levy
5/19/2010WOODVILLE - Woodmore Local Schools is making moves to again ask voters in the district to pass a 2.99-mill, five-year emergency operating levy.
The new tax would cost homeowners 25 percent less annually than a levy about to expire.
The school district's plan is to put the issue on the ballot in August.
The 2.99-mill levy, which would have brought in $450,000 a year, lost in this month's primary.
District officials do not plan to seek renewal of a 4-mill operating levy that ends this year.
Because the 2.99-mill is an emergency measure, language on the May 4 ballot referred to it as an additional tax.
Jane Garling, Woodmore superintendent, said that apparently confused some voters and prompted its downfall.
The 2.99-mill levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 house $91.57 a year.
The expiring 4-mill levy has cost the owner of a $100,000 house $119.13 a year.
Unofficial election results from Ottawa and Sandusky counties show that the 2.99-mill levy was defeated 846 to 793.
The levy narrowly carried in Ottawa County, where 404 district residents voted for it and 382 rejected it. But in Sandusky County, 464 district voters were against and 389 voted for it.