ROSSFORD – Monday it was Treasurer James Rossler’s turn to speak during the board’s Five Good Minutes
section on the agenda.
The information he had to share wasn’t good, though.
Rossler gave a brief history of the district’s financial picture. In the end he concluded: "The
challenges will create huge decisions that the district will have to face."
After the meeting, he said those challenges will lead the district to seek new operating money sometime
within the year.
Rossford, he said, has gone 12 years without seeking new money. The district first passed a 7.9-mill
operating levy in 1992, and then renewed that and added another 7.9-mill levy in 2002. Voters approved
renewals of both those levies in 2012.
The school district, which includes a large section of Perrysburg Township, had been able to rely on
steady growth in residential and commercial tax bases.
In the last several years, that has not been the case.
The state eliminated the Tangible Personal Property Tax, which applied to businesses. That reduced
revenue to the district by $400,000 a year. By the time the tax is finally phased out, the district
would be out $5.3 million unless the state steps in to make up the difference. Rossler said that was
unlikely.
Then the countywide property reappraisal dropped real estate values by 10 percent.
That costs the district another $1 million a year.
The district, Rossler said, has been able to address this reduced funding through cuts. But the time is
coming, he indicated, when more revenues will be needed.