HB 186 Reimbursements: Please Review Your District

We want to make members aware of an issue that has been identified with the House Bill (HB) 186 inflation cap credit (ICC) reimbursements recently paid to school districts.

The County Auditors’ Association compiled the attached spreadsheet comparing the actual ICC provided to taxpayers with the reimbursement paid to each district by the state. We encourage you to review the “Section 5 Payments by County” tab and look at the “Difference” column for your district.

Statewide, the reimbursements do not align with the actual ICC amounts. Some districts received more than ICC provided to taxpayers, while others received less — in some cases substantially less. Overall, the state paid approximately $39 million more in reimbursements than the actual ICC provided to taxpayers.

Why did this happen? HB 186 created a separate calculation for the state reimbursement rather than simply reimbursing districts for the actual ICC provided to taxpayers. The reimbursement calculation compares taxes charged and payable in the current year to the taxes charged and payable in tax year (TY) 2024.

The problem is that a district’s millage may have changed since then for reasons completely unrelated to ICC. A new levy may now be in place that did not exist in TY 2024, or a bond, emergency levy or other millage that existed in TY 2024 may have since declined or expired. Generally, districts with new or increased millage since the comparison year may have received less than their actual ICC, while districts with millage that declined or expired may have received more.

This appears to be an issue with the statutory reimbursement methodology, not an error in how the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce or DTE implemented the law.

We are working with county auditors and other stakeholders to better understand the district-level impacts and identify a legislative solution. You will likely hear more from your county auditor as well.

For now, we encourage you to review your district’s information carefully. If your reimbursement was significantly less than your actual ICC, we also encourage you to share that impact with your legislators. If your district received significantly more than its actual ICC, we recommend being cautious about relying on those additional funds until there is greater clarity about how the issue will be addressed.

We are working diligently on this issue and will keep members updated as we learn more.

Questions? Contact:

Nicole Piscitani, OSBA — (614) 540-4000

Paul Imhoff, BASA — (614) 846-4080 

Katie Johnson, OASBO — (614) 431-9116