The Columbus State Community College Board of Trustees tabled a decision on whether to put a property tax levy on November's ballot, in order to fund free tuition for new high school graduates in Franklin County.
CSCC is now weighing three options on how to move forward with a proposed property tax levy. The college's board of trustees met Thursday night but didn't vote on whether to place the levy on the ballot, aiming to fund free tuition for Franklin County high school graduates.
The levy proposal is an attempt to expand t he Columbus Prom ise, a free-tuition program for Columbus City Schools students, to the entire county.
CSCC President David Harrison said at the meeting there are positives and some downsides to proceeding with the proposal as is, which includes community concerns over property taxes.
"The public dialogue around property taxes is important. and it's something we're listening to and really trying to understand how — and if — frankly we can make this work," Harrison said.
If passed, the current proposal would raise property taxes by nearly $200 for the median homeowner.
One option would be to move forward with the original plan. Another would be not to put the measure on this November's ballot. Lastly, the board might modify its proposal to lower the property tax burden on residents and target free tuition only to low-income residents.
"We were trying to scale Columbus Promise where we wanted to make it as easy as possible for students to enroll. So we didn't want to create questions as to whether or not they were eligible. So we've made it available to everyone," Harrison said.
Harrison said if they limited the program by income or other "means testing" less students would end up benefitting and it would lead to families having additional questions about who is eligible.
"Deciding what is, what's the line to draw is, is not an easy thing to do," Harrison said.
A CSCC spokesperson said a decision could be made early next week. The college is up against an August 5 deadline to get their decision to the Franklin County Board of Elections in order to make November's ballot.
How Ohio law allows Columbus State to use property taxes to give free tuition
Harrison told trustees Thursday that the current state budget provided the avenue through which CSCC has the authority to seek a ballot measure.
Prior to this year's state budget, Ohio law typically allowed community colleges to propose property tax levies, but until recently that was largely limited to purchasing property and large capital projects.
A new law passed last year ats part of the budget now allows state community colleges to speyd tax levy funds on "current expenses."
"We have an opportunity with the most recent state budget where we've got a path now that we didn't have before in terms of legislative authority to do this," Harrison said.
CSCC is using that change, combined with a law passed over a decade ago requiring community colleges to lower tuition to all county residents, if a college collects property taxes.
That law doesn't set a floor for how low tuition would have to be, so CSCC is opting to make it zero for recent high school graduates. The property taxes will pay for expenses that tuition money would typically cover.
