CHUH School District:
We pay more - we get less
Future of University Heights
continued from Home page -
The levy supporters say WE don't understand. Then PLEASE; come to us with "clean hands" and and a TRULY open dialog and explain to us where our tax money is going; and why we seem to be lacking in understanding of the facts as YOU see them. They speak of "transparency" but we are still in the dark about much of this. We truly ARE open to an honest discussion.
Instead, THEY seem to be the ones who are lacking in knowledge (or is it lacking "CONCERN") on how these high taxes are NEGATIVELY Impacting the entire community. They have tried to sell us on the idea that tax INCREASES somehow BENEFIT the community, but fail to explain just HOW sucking money OUT of our community benefits OUR CITIZENS or our communities. WE DON'T BENEFIT! I have walked the streets in areas of University Heights and seen evidence of poverty and neglect. CH is even worse. There are vacant lots where houses used to stand and still more houses that will NEVER stand the chance of being a HOME to ANYONE except vandals and rodents. Some of them were NICE homes at one time. I wish that I had some of them. Excuse me for shouting: NOBODY is going to invest into an area where taxes are SO high that there is no point or profitability in doing so. RAISING taxes will INCREASE the problems. Exactly WHAT do we have to attract homeowners or investors in our areas? Here is the Answer. TURKEY RIDGE! This strange name will probably mean NOTHING to most CH residents and even fewer UH residents. Turkey Ridge is an area in CH that overlooks Little Italy. It was once home to some of the most wealthy people in the nation. People who came up from mansions on Euclid Avenue built homes on boarder-lining areas of Cleveland, up the hill from Cleveland itself. One such area is called Turkey Ridge. Today many of these mansions are GONE. It is simply TOO costly to support such structures in CH. It is sad to see these beautiful mansions gone but who can blame anyone for their demise. HIGH taxes don't help. They HURT. Today there are still wealthy people who still invest and live there. How are they being rewarded for their dedication? In 2014 CH decided to declare Turkey Ridge as a CRA (Community Reinvestment Area). The idea was to encourage redevelopment of this area with housing geared to VERY high income individuals. This makes sense so far. Now you are probably asking, WHAT does this have to do with the School levy? To answer that, we need to understand the actual POWER that School districts have over taxes in Ohio. When there are matters that effect the taxes collected by the counties, the school board of each taxing district MUST be notified of any changes that would effect the taxes they collect. NOBODY else that is funded by these same taxes has this power, not even the city itself. If YOU protest your tax assessment, the school board is notified of any changes. Now to answer the question of how the school taxes come into play. The Turkey Ridge CRA actually granted a tax ABATEMENT to developers and home buyers in the Turkey Ridge area. This abatement would mean that there would be NO TAXES collected |
on ANY new development for a period of FIFTEEN YEARS. You heard me correctly. No new taxes on their investment for FIFTEEN years. These are properties that are valued at $350,000 and up. Imagine how much money that is in taxes. Multi-Millions of dollars over a 15 year period. In the mean time, existing residents will be paying their taxes IN FULL. This is a GREAT deal for the investor but a BAD deal for everyone else.
The point is that there is NO EVIDENCE that CH/UH SCHOOL BOARD, SHOWED ANY OPPOSITION to the proposal. NONE! This is a deal that would eliminate MULTI-MILLIONS of dollars in school taxes in the next 15 years. So I ask you, WHY does a school board who is claiming a DESPERATE need for new taxes, simply bypass an opportunity to "potentially" collect multi-millions of dollars in the next 15 years? Now I DO understand this is POTENTIAL, not guaranteed money. However the school board has the right as well as an obligation to look after its own financial interests. Instead they are coming to US to ask for increases in OUR taxes while overlooking potential taxes from some of the wealthiest people in the city. THIS IS A SLAP IN OUR FACE! Now again to be fair, the development project along the actual ridge within this Turkey Ridge CRA has met a snag and is stalled off for now. But the thought of the fact that the school board looked the other way rather than securing an amazing possible financial future, is UNACCEPTABLE. People with kids will feel the pressure to vote for this levy whether they can afford it or not. I have heard the kids pleading with their parents to vote YES on tax levies. I ask you this; do our children understand ANYTHING about school funding? Do they understand anything that I have outlined here?. NO, THEY DON'T! While we "hope" that the money will reach the classroom, history has shown that most of it doesn't and that it has no real impact on overall, performance. Another argument we hear is that there are many "special needs" kids in our schools. What these needs are and how we deal with them needs to be further explained.We need a clearer understanding on the specifics of these needs and how these needs are being met and at what cost. Would it be better to equip and staff specific schools to meet these needs? Our kids don't understand this and most of us don't seem to understand it either. Our cities are becoming "uninvestable" (incapable of being invested in profitably). Taxes are too high already. School performance is too low. The breaking point and balance has already been reached. We must start by DEMANDING that our school officials stop rewarding themselves and start doing the jobs they are elected to do. Giving them more money is showing approval. If they try to hold our kids education hostage, to more levies, it is THEY who is cheating the kids, not US. Another argument presented is cuts in funding from the state. If you Google "DEROLPH" you will find a lot of legal jargon on school funding. Here is the matter "in a nutshell". In 1995 the way we fund schools was declared unconstitutional due to an over reliance on property tax. To this day, the matter has never been properly resolved. |
The point here is that with EVERY levy we pass, we become more "lopsided" in our over reliance on property tax. The state has an obligation to distribute funds to all Ohio school districts. Since we are in the top 1% in the funding that WE provide, the state is going to provide greater funding to districts that need it most. That is only natural. Our school funding is s victim of its own making.
Some final thoughts. The school board has conditioned us into believing that approving levies every 3 years or so is ESSENTIAL. Its NOT! Yes there is inflation. WE ALL EXPERIENCE INFLATION. We are all CFO's of our finances and households. We MUST work with what money we have. So must our school board. In many cases they are taking from those of us who DON'T have it. The notion of the 3 year cycle came about because our properties are reassessed every 3 years. The idea was to go after the INCREASES in property values. What they fail to tell us is that EVERY Levy we pass, will exist FOREVER. It DOESN'T JUST GO AWAY. We are currently paying roughly 15 levies existing since the 70's. This new levy will be paid on top of the existing ones we are already paying. For many of us property values are FALLING. Again, people are reluctant to invest in areas with high taxes and climbing even higher. Money is better spent in communities outside of our own. It seems however that even though houses are selling for less, our valuation seems to rise. My own house, which was appraised by a licensed appraiser for $80,000; was said to increase by 27% in 2011. UH was said to show an overall to DECREASE by 2.7 %. That's two point seven % DECREASE. I changed NOTHING on the house. Schools are pretty much insulated when property values FALL just as they are insulated to increases. This is why they go after the increases every 3 years. But whether or not the values rise or fall, WE STILL PAY MORE TAXES. PERIOD. If the school, board would like to challenge or deny what I am saying, our citizens leadership pac will be happy to sit down to a reasonable discussion. So far, there are many, MANY citizens that are not even aware of this levy. Why is there not an open discussion about their position? What we need is an INDEPENDENT AUDIT as well as a unbiased person to mediate between the school board and the citizens of our city. We should NOT be granting ANY more funds until we have an unbiased assessment of where our money is going. We must NOT grant more money until we see CLEAR and SIGNIFICANT improvement in our schools performance. This seems to be a LONG way off. If you would like to see how problems in education and public and private schools are being addressed around the country, I might suggest a MOVIE called: "WAITING FOR SUPERMAN". RENT IT, BUY IT, STREAM IT but most of all WATCH IT. Education problems DO HAVE solutions. Its NOT money. Its HOW YOU DEAL with the situation THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE READ THIS FAR. I hope you better understand that there is a REAL concern on our end. Not just an indifference or vendetta. THANK YOU. ~ |
Hurting University Heights
Residents of University Heights: PLEASE pay close attention. There is a new school operating levy set for the May 5 primary ballot. About a year and a half ago, a bond levy was passed to provide for extensive repairs to Heights High school. In addition to the bond, passage of the levy CLOSED WILEY middle school PERMANENTLY. Wiley will be used temporarily as a satellite High school building while repairs are being done at the main building. Once repairs are completed, the future of the Wiley school is unknown.
Many UH residents were not completely aware of the fate of Wiley school. The impact of this is not yet being felt. Here are the FACTS: University Heights relies on income tax generated within our city. As you can well imagine, a school employs a number of people in a higher than average income bracket. It is a significant source of tax income to our city. Once the school building closes, this revenue source will be GONE. Even if the school is converted to something else, or new development is planned on the school site, it will probably not generate enough money to make up for what we have lost. Needless to say, the loss of a local school is devastating enough. Our kids will need to be bussed outside of our city for their middle school education. UH will be left with only ONE elementary school within our city limits. This is completely unfair to or city and our kids. This new levy is considered an OPERATING levy. The school board again claims that there is a shortage of funds. The BIGGER question is WHY? Closing Wiley school will save the district money. Demolition and reduction of square footage of Cleveland Heights High school will SAVE money. The new upgrades of the High School are supposed to be done with energy conservation end economy in mind. This should REDUCE operating costs. So WHY is a levy necessary? IT"S NOT! We are here to give residents FACTS, not fiction. CH/UH school district is in the TOP FOUR districts in the money they collect. This means TOP FOUR in the STATE OF OHIO. TOP FOUR out of 611 Ohio school districts in total. Don"t just take my word for it. Here is a link to a chart which show ALL of the school districts and where we rank: ttp://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2012/01/17/see-how-much-each-ohio-school-district-spends-per-student/ http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2012/01/17/see-how-much-each-ohio-school-district-spends-per-student/ |
http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2012/01/17/see-how-much-each-ohio-school-district-spends-per-student/
The fact is there is NO shortage of money. The fact is there is NO shortage of money. We are in the top ONE percent in Ohio in money collected. New sources of tax revenue are being generated by Cedar Center Redevelopment as well as Oakwood Commons which pays FULL property taxes to CH/UH school system. The name of our site is WEPAYMORE. In UH, we get LESS. So the question remains, where does out tax money go? Primarily it goes toward out of control administrative costs. These costs are discussed elsewhere on the web site. Little if ANY of this money makes its way to the actual student and classroom. Again we collect PLENTY of money and are more than adequately funded. It is up to the administrators to use our tax money wisely. This is not happening. As responsible citizens we MUST stop the wheel that churns out tax levy after tax levy. These levies HURT ALL OF US. Whether or not we own property we are ALL negatively effected by excessively high taxes. From my own observations, property values in my area of UH are dropping. High taxes DISCOURAGE people from investing into our city. It DISCOURAGES home ownership in our city. I causes higher rents. It causes higher prices in our businesses and cuts to staffing in those businesses. NONE of this is GOOD for our community. So whether or not we pay actual taxes, we will ALL feel the weight of excessive taxes, one way or another. WE ALL want good schools. Our schools are VERY well funded already. Unfortunately our academic performance fall far below many similar school systems and ranks very low in the state overall. RAISING TAXES WILL NOT FIX THIS. PLEASE for the sake of our community and our neighbors and friends, Get out and VOTE. VOTE NO on the school levy. DO NOT reward a school board which is misspending our money and asking us for more Keep checking back on our site for updates to our cause. If you can donate your time or a monetary donation, it will help us get the word out. Tell your friends and neighbors to check our site. And THANK YOU for your help. ~ |
Citizens Leadership PAC is a Ballot political action committee; Diane L. Hallum, Treasurer, 1059 Oxford Road, Cleveland Heights, OH 44121.