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COLUMBIANA -- The city wants to meet with the entire Columbiana Board of Education with a third-party moderator to discuss the Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) program.
Columbiana City Council approved a motion during the Dec. 19 meeting to request a joint meeting of the city and school, to be presided over by a third-party moderator that they both agree upon.
The school district was not in attendance at that council meeting.
According to the motion approved by council, the city wants to host a public meeting in order to allow for "full transparency" and avoid any "accusations of negotiating behind closed doors."
The motion also seeks a meeting in order to agree upon mutually agreed upon action items and a timeline for completion.
City officials say the school district needs to stop holding the commercial/industrial CRA "hostage" until the action items are completed, or until the agreed upon timeline has elapsed, whichever comes first.
The school district is opposed to facets of the CRA program -- specifically the 15 year, 100-percent abatement offered for residential projects -- and say that the property tax abatements are costing the district money since the district has to educate the additional students entering the district through new home construction but not receiving the property tax revenue for those new homes for at least 15 years.
The city implemented the state-sanctioned CRA program five years ago as an economic development tool and property tax abatements are available for eligible residential, commercial and industrial projects on a per-project basis.
All CRA agreements must be approved by council, with the school district required to approve any agreements that are above the 10-year, 75 percent threshold.
School officials told the city in prior council meetings that if the city doesn't make changes to the CRA program the board may not give its consent to future CRA agreements that require district approval.
Mayor Rick Noel said that school officials said the CRA program is causing a financial burden to the school district but that the city has not found any evidence of negative financial impact to the school district as a result of the program.
Reiterating what was outlined by the city during the Dec. 5 council meeting in which school officials were present, Noel said that the district's five year financial forecast not only shows positive fund balances for the next five years, but an increase in both property tax and income tax revenues each of the years.
The city and school both have separate income taxes with both collecting a 1 percent income tax from all household residents that live in the city.
Citing the district's five year forecast, Noel noted that since the establishment of the CRA, the school's annual income tax revenue has increased approximately 52% from $1.8 million a year in 2018 to $2.8 million a year in 2023.
Additionally, Noel said that the increase in housing can be attributed to the CRA, which he said "has played a large role in the increase of income tax collection."
He added that the school's property tax has also increased by just over 22 percent during that same period.
City officials disagree with school officials' stance that the study conducted by Dr. Thomas Maraffa in 2022 was not correct.
The study said that there is no evidence the CRA program is negatively impacting the school district.
During the Dec. 5 meeting, board of education member Scott Caron said the study was not correct and that the district wouldn't even discuss it.
It was during that meeting that the city and school agreed to allow their respective legal counsels to seek an agreement that would be similar to the CRA agreement entered into with APL Properties regarding the Lake Front development.
"Unfortunately, since the council meeting the school officials continue to make inaccurate and misleading statements. Specifically, they said the school did not agree with the Maraffa study, the CRA is costing the school $2 million dollars and the demand for $234,000 per year from the city at the Nov. 7 meeting is 'similar to what was agreed upon in the APL agreement,'" Noel said.
According to the APL agreement for the Lake Front property, APL will pay the school district any difference in cost to the school on a per pupil basis if it is found that the CRA is costing the district more to educate the students residing there than revenues received.
"This will be measured by an analysis of the cost per student incurred by the school district from each student who resides upon the Lake Front land and school revenues from Lake Front land improvements and other school district revenue sources," the APL agreement states.
Furthermore, it states that the school district per pupil cost will be calculated by dividing the current expenditures of the school district over an entire academic year for pre-kindergarten through grade 12.
Noel said the school district has "never stated how the CRA was causing a 'burden' to the school district."
"School officials also continue to say that the city has not provided them CRA reports, despite the fact that the Ohio Development Service Agency-Ohio Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) Program Residential Status Reports have been sent to the school treasurer on multiple occasions including as recently as Nov. 3," he said.
For those reasons, he said, the city has decided to seek a public meeting with a moderator. The moderator, time and location of the meeting are all to be agreed upon by both the city and school district.