Local leaders went down to the Statehouse Wednesday to testify against a proposed property tax reform that they say will harm public works, including public schools.
Northwest Allen County Schools Superintendent Wayne Barker spoke to members of the House Ways and Means Committee about the harm Senate Bill 1 could cause the district. Last month, the district agreed to move forward with a planned operations referendum for the November 2025 ballot.
“However, Senate Bill 1 would prohibit us from pursuing this referendum, despite planning and following current laws in good faith,” Barker said. “If anything, we ask that districts like ours be able to proceed under the rules in place when we started this process.”
Barker also expressed concern about the proposed maximum levy growth quotient (MLGQ), which would lower to 2%. He says NACS has exceeded that cap at 4% the past two years.
NACS has the lowest starting teacher salary in the county, which Barker says the operations referendum would help address. The district currently received more than $500 less than the state average for operational dollars per student and more than $400 less than the state average for tuition dollars per student.
At a school board meeting in November, Barker called SB 1 “very concerning.” He was also critical of SB 518, which will change how public schools share referendum revenue with charter schools, though he said it won’t have a tremendous impact on NACS immediately.
Earlier in the week, Fort Wayne Community Schools held a press conference urging community members to advocate against both SB 1 and SB 518. Superintendent Mark Daniel wrote a letter to legislators urging them to change or strike down both bills.
WFYI reported the bill is projected to redirect $124.4 million dollars away from public schools over three years. Daniel said SB 1 could result in a loss of $12.5 million in funding for FWCS alone over those three years.
Fort Wayne Mayor Sharon Tucker also testified on SB 1. She laid out ways she believes the city has been a good steward of tax dollars and utilized state and federal grants. She suggested a “phase-in” model of tax relief, rather than all at once.
View the full testimony from Wednesday at the Indiana General Assembly website.
