West G BOE Votes to Place Substitute Levy on Nov. Ballot
West Geauga Schools Board of Education decided to expedite their next levy, moving it up from the spring 2026 ballot to this fall’s ballot before any more potential changes happen to the state budget.
West Geauga Schools Board of Education decided to expedite their next levy, moving it up from the spring 2026 ballot to this fall’s ballot before any more potential changes happen to the state budget.
During a July 31 special meeting, the board unanimously passed a resolution to place a continuous, 4.82-mill substitute levy on the Nov. 4 ballot.
If passed, the levy would yield $6.05 million per year and cost homeowners $169 annually per $100,000 property valuation, according to the Geauga County Auditor’s Office.
“This … is something that’s actually been suggested to us by some community members, as well as the (Geauga County Budget Commission) that we should go (with) this substitute levy,” Vice President Bill Beers said during the meeting. “So, this isn’t an action that we’re kind of taking frivolously, right? It’s something that has been in consideration for a while and it’s also been sort of accelerated because of the changes in what’s going on at the state as far as property tax.”
Last month, state lawmakers set a 40% limit for school district cash balance carryover and disqualified emergency and substitute levies, leaving West Geauga Schools in a lurch.
District officials had been considering replacing two current emergency levies — a 1.87-mill levy that collects $2.35 million and a 2.95-mill levy that collects $3.7 million annually — with a substitute levy on the May 2026 ballot, said district Treasurer Karen Pavlat last month, adding the 3.7-mill levy is set to expire soon.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine made 67 vetoes to the biennium state budget, including halting the aforementioned changes, however, the Ohio House and Senate have been attempting to get the three-fifths majority vote needed in each to override DeWine’s vetoes, Pavlat told the board in July.
If the governor’s vetoes are overridden, the board loses the opportunity to renew its emergency levies.
“With that Aug. 6 deadline looming for the November ballot, we really need to put ourselves in a position to move forward,” Pavlat said July 7. (It) puts us in a position where we’re able to do something if we choose, if the board chooses to do so.”
As the school board’s next regular meeting was set for Aug. 11 — past the deadline for placing a levy on the November ballot — the board had to hold two special meetings last month to make two separate votes, a resolution of necessity and a resolution to proceed.
If voters pass the substitute levy, it would combine the two emergency levies, Pavlat previously explained, adding it would collect the same amount of revenue as the previous two levies did.
“However, unlike the current levies, (the substitute levy) would allow for a small increase in the future, but only when new homes or businesses are built in the area,” she said. “A major advantage of using a substitute levy is that it’s considered a ‘renewal’ of the existing taxes.
This means the community would continue to receive special state-funded property tax breaks, known as ‘rollback provisions.’ These rollbacks, paid by the state, currently save local taxpayers up to 12.5% of what they would otherwise owe on these two emergency levies.”
If the state legislature overrides the governor’s veto, those rollback provisions would be lost permanently for future levies, costing local taxpayers more, Pavlat said last month.
