In a big test of voters’ appetite for income taxes versus property taxes, Northeast Ohio voters largely rejected school districts’ income tax levies on the ballot Tuesday night.
In total, it appeared as if just one of the 11 requests for new income taxes were approved by voters in unofficial results shared by county boards of election Tuesday. Income tax levies represented a third of all school levy requests in Northeast Ohio. It was also a hard night for districts seeking new property taxes, where the vast majority of the 22 new requests for property taxes failed.
Parma City School District was one of the largest school districts where voters appeared to reject an income tax by more than 3,000 votes (with 91% of precincts reporting just after midnight). The district has failed to to get a levy for new money passed since 2011. Leaders there had said they would have provided property tax relief if the income tax had passed. An income tax to fund new schools also failed at New Philadelphia schools in Tuscarawas County. Wickliffe City School District was the sole success, winning by about 100 votes…