By Jana Wiersema | The Republic
jwiersema@therepublic.com
“In Columbus, anything can happen.”
Those were the words of Janice Montgomery, a Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation retired teacher and administrator as she and other political action committee members waited for results to come in for the long-awaited referendum.
And as the results came in Tuesday, she was proven right.
The BCSC referendum passed, with 9,356 people (61.33%) voting for and 5,900 people (38.67%) voting against the referendum.
As results came in, Superintendent Dr. Jim Roberts said that he was excited and ready to “start talking about moving us forward and how we can continue to grow and improve as a school system.”
Assistant superintendent and director of finance Chad Phillips said, “I am feeling relieved and thankful. Relieved that it’s over and thankful to our community and the volunteers.”
Roberts said one of the factors that helped the referendum was likely the level of education about it, and how much information was available to the community. He also said that while he’s unsure if voter turnout played a role in the result, he thought that voter participation was much higher than he anticipated given the delayed election date.
Phillips said that BCSC’s transparency about the referendum was probably a deciding factor, as it helped address community concerns about how the money would be spent.
The referendum question read: “For the eight (8) calendar years immediately following the holding of the referendum, shall Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation impose a property tax rate…for the purpose of increasing compensation for teachers and support staff and maintaining student safety?”
The referendum will generate about $7.8 million per year in additional property tax revenue to fund teacher and support staff salary increases and student safety. BCSC property taxes will be raised by $0.156 per $100 of assessed value to roughly $1.01 starting in 2021. BCSC officials initially had sought a $0.195 per $100 of assessed valuation increase, but lowered the request before the public information sessions began.
A total of 86.5% of the increased property tax revenue will be spent on employee recruitment and retention and 13.5% will go to student safety, according to figures from BCSC. The latter category includes plans for “funding for existing school resource officers, mental health counselors in all buildings, and to update the bus fleet so that no buses are older than 12 years old.”
Vice President of the Columbus Educators Association Mandy Keele, who also teaches at Southside Elementary School and is involved in the referendum’s political action committee, said that the mental health side of the referendum will be “incredibly vital” as schools address the emotional and mental impact of the COVID-19 crisis and shutdown on students.
According to a property tax calculator on BCSC’s website, a home with an assessed value $141,800 — the average home value in BCSC’s tax district — will see an estimated annual property tax increase of $93.48, or $7.79 per month. A property assessed at a value of $300,000 could expect to see an increase of around $253.89 per year, or $21.16 per month.
Bartholomew County’s property tax rate in 2019 was $0.8512, lower than the state average of $1.07, according to figures provided by BCSC.
The pay increase for teachers will begin in January of 2021, but the property tax increase will not begin until May of 2021.
Voters can expect to see a similar referendum in the 2028 primary election. According to BCSC’s website, “The need to invest in local public school employee salaries will not go away at the end of the eight-year period. BCSC will likely ask to renew the referendum, as long as the state legislature still allows this one method for increasing local revenues. This is essentially a request to reset the base property tax rate.”
