PEMBERVILLE – Eastwood voters will be asked in May to renew an income tax they’ve been paying for the
past five years.
The board of education met this morning for its 2011 organizational meeting, and gave a first reading to
a resolution asking the state tax commissioner to estimate the revenue collected from the 1-percent
earned income tax.
Superintendent Brent Welker said this morning the tax should collect about $1.53 million during the
2010-11 budget year. He expects the estimate from the state on future collections to be a bit higher
than that.
With its renewal, Welker was confident the district would not have to approach taxpayers for new tax
money for nearly five years.
"We feel like if we get this levy renewed, we can stay off the ballot with new money through the
2015-16 school year," he stated. "We feel pretty confident making this pledge to our
community."
Without its renewal, however, "we would be in pretty bad shape pretty quick."
The amount collected each year from the income tax is roughly10 percent of the district’s annual general
operating fund.
It took two attempts in 2006 to pass the income tax; it eked out a victory in November of that year by
fewer than 60 votes.
The issue would continue to tax only earned income, including wages, tips, salaries, other employee
compensation, self-employment income from sole proprietorships, partnerships and farming.
Income tax would not be paid on income gained from retirement, lottery winnings, interest, dividends,
capital gains, profit from rental activities, distributed shares of profit from S corporations and other
income which is not earned.
Its passage is crucial to the district’s financial health, as Eastwood is expected to lose $1.2 million
in revenue in the next couple years through a combination of state funding cuts and a deal with Troy
Energy that expires in 2013.
To help offset those anticipated losses, the district will cut $650,000 from its operating fund before
the start of the 2011-12 school year; most of the savings is through the closure of Webster Elementary.

A second tier of cuts, estimated between $250,000 to $400,000, will take place by the start of the
2012-13 school year.
The district already has made at least $1.2 million in cuts since 2006, more than half of that from the
closing of Lemoyne Elementary.
Also at today’s meeting, the board re-elected Roger Bostdorff to serve as president, and named Tim Shank
as vice president. Meetings in 2011 will continue to be held on the third Monday of each month, with
exceptions in January, February, June and July.
The board also approved a 2011-12 general fund budget of $13,377,000.