Rising expenses are putting the squeeze on Toledo Public Schools’ budgets, with spending projected to increasingly outpace state and local revenues through 2027 unless something is done to change course.
Board members approved their 2023-24 budget during Tuesday meeting with the expectation that expenditures will outpace the district’s projected $330.7 million state and local revenues by more than $39 million, with district officials using leftover monies from previous years other funding to fill in that gap. Going forward, expenditures are expected to outpace revenues by more than $66.7 million by the summer of 2027.
Those projected budgets don’t include federal tax and grants for other services, Treasurer Ryan Stechschulte said.
Part of the problem lies with property tax revenue, according to Mr. Stechschulte’s five-year forecast. While it’s risen from more than $88.3 million in 2022 to about $88.5 million in fiscal year 2023, it’s projected to decrease 7.5 percent to roughly $81.8 million for the next school year budget, which runs July 1 through June 30, 2024.
Property tax revenue for the district is then expected to decline by about 15 percent — or more than $12.4 million through fiscal year 2027 — to $69.3 million. Meanwhile, personnel costs and benefits are expected to steadily rise throughout that same time period, with overall expenses increasing from $369.8 million in the latest budget to more than $411.5 million in fiscal year 2027.
Mr. Stechschulte said during May’s school board meeting that the situation will be more dire if taxpayers don’t renew a five-year, 6.5-mill operating levy and 5.8-mill operating and permanent improvement levy that generates roughly $26 million a year. Without those monies, he expects the district’s cash balance to be more than $42.8 million in the red by 2026 and more than $109 million in the red by 2027.
During Tuesday’s meeting, board members unanimously approved ballot language for the levy renewals, which Mr. Stechschulte said will be submitted by Thursday to the Lucas County Board of Elections office.
Board members gave little discussion to the budget and levies, but Mr. Stechschulte told them much of the budget for next school year and going forward will be determined by the final state budget, which as of Tuesday is still being hashed out by Ohio House and Senate lawmakers. He said district officials might have to wait longer before knowing how the state budget will affect the district’s, as there had been discussion about extending the budget deadline from Friday to July 7.
This is what I consider the scary time,” he said. “What usually happens is they will go into session and at about 3 a.m. in the morning, they'll come out and they'll pass a budget bill and there will have been no one better to question or comment or see what was in it.”
First Published June 28, 2023, 1:05 a.m.
