Voters in the village of West Liberty as well as Liberty and Monroe townships combined to drive approval Tuesday of a 1 percent income tax renewal levy for West Liberty-Salem schools.
“This levy means a lot for our school district, and we’re very, very happy it passed,” Superintendent Kraig Hissong said Tuesday night. “We’re very grateful to the community for standing behind our school and students.”
According to unofficial results from boards of elections in Logan and Champaign counties, the issue passed 1,117-930. However, Champaign County voters in the WL-Salem school district rejected the levy, 484-457.
Within the village of West Liberty, the income tax renewal passed 346-217. Voters in Liberty Township passed the levy 160-98, and in Monroe Township the issue passed, 116-92.
School officials and board members for months have discussed the importance of this income tax, which raises $1.3 million per year for the school district’s general fund to pay for current operating expenses.
During an overview of his five-year forecast at an October board meeting, Treasurer Steve Godwin estimated an $888,516 shortfall in the school’s general fund by 2019, and a deficit in excess of $3.8 million by 2020 in the absence of that income tax revenue.
The levy initially was passed in 1992, and has been approved every three years since.
In Russells Point, a 3-mills continuing levy to fund the police force narrowly failed 135-130, according to unofficial results from the Logan County Board of Elections.
The permanent levy also failed by five votes, 182-177 last November.