The Painesville City Board of Education has voted to place a continuing 1.25% earned income tax levy on the May 5, 2026 ballot for public consideration. If approved, this levy would generate $3.4 million annually to support normal operational expenses. This levy would not be for any “extras”--it would support the programming already in place to serve our students.
With 70% of our funding coming from the state, PCLS has historically had to rely relatively little on local taxes for revenue. With only 16% of our revenue coming from local sources, 95% of all districts across the state of Ohio receive a greater share of local funding. This 16% for PCLS compares to an average of 43% across the state, and 56% across the rest of Lake County. Being mostly state-funded means that PCLS has had to turn to local voters for additional funding very little, and the district has not been on the ballot for new funding for 14 years.
However, the most recent state budget bill made significant cuts to public school funding. As a result, PCLS experienced a reduction in total revenue of $2.24M in 2026, and then state funding is flatlined for 2027.
In response to this, the district has made deep cuts to reduce spending. Between the 2024-25 and current school years, the district implemented cuts totaling $1.8M. Between the current and 2026-27 school year, the district is implementing another round of cuts exceeding another $1.8M. Despite cuts of over $3.6M, year-over-year increases in costs of normal operations create a deficit of $4.5M in 2026.
If approved, the additional funding, along with cuts and the continued drawing-down of reserve funds, will balance the budget with essentially no surplus. Without the additional funding to fill the gap left by the state cuts and with sustained deficit spending, the district is projected to have a total fund balance of negative $5M by 2029.
The additional funding would allow the district to offer the same programs and services it offers to students without significant disruption. Without additional funding, if the district must balance the budget through cuts alone, the district will face the closure of an elementary school, continued staffing reductions resulting in much larger class sizes and the reduction of course options at the middle and high school (electives, higher-level courses, etc.), the exhaustion of funds available for building maintenance and repair (roofs, heating/cooling systems, parking lots, etc.), and substantial increases in pay-to-participate fees, among other considerations.
The new levy proposed in Issue 2 would cost $12.50 per every $1,000 earned. At the Painesville City median income of $35,175, this translates to about $37 per month. This tax would apply only to earned income (salaries, wages, tips, certain self-employment income) and would not apply to retirement (pensions, IRAs, 401(k)s), benefits (Social Security, unemployment, workers compensation), or passive income sources (rental profits, interests, dividends, capital gains).
PCLS has always taken its obligation to the community for fiscal responsibility very seriously, as evidenced by its clean audits, creativity in deploying personnel and sharing services with other districts, and persistent efforts to save on costs at every opportunity. We remain committed to strong stewardship of tax dollars while providing the very best services and opportunities to our students that we can possibly provide. Decisions about school funding impact the entirety of every community, and we at the district level take these decisions very seriously.
Please see the presentation linked below for additional information:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IT0I50OHGmW2LzmLOatYzNm4Km9l-fwK/view?usp=sharing