March 18, 2025
By Rachel Scofield

Schools are funded through a combination of federal, state and local taxes. In recent years, the federal and state governments have reduced the share of funding they contribute to public education, which Pickerington Online will explore in an upcoming article. For this story, we will focus on local school taxes, specifically the district’s income tax.

May 5 Ballot Issue

Pickerington Schools has placed an issue on the May 5 ballot that would increase the district income tax from 1% to 2.25%.

The district has not had a voter-approved revenue increase since 2011. Combined with reductions in state funding, the school’s long-term financial forecast shows reserve funds could be exhausted by July 2028 if there is not either an increase in funding or a decrease in spending.

In a statement, the district explained why the board chose to pursue an income tax instead of a property tax.

“We opted for the income tax for two reasons. First, the political climate in Ohio has very much soured on the sustainability of property taxes. Recent property tax reform has lessened the amount of money we once anticipated collecting by $5.1 million over our current financial forecast, and more reforms seem imminent.

Second, income taxes hold harmless Social Security. This helps our senior citizens who rely upon this mechanism for a substantial or exclusive portion of their income.”

Don’t New Residents Pay Income Tax?

Taxpayers living within the district boundaries currently pay a 1% income tax to the schools, unless they rely solely on Social Security.

However, the additional income tax collected from new residents would not likely cover the cost of educating their children.

The average operating cost per pupil is $10,032, according to the most recent Ohio Department of Education report card. (The school district places the average at $14,756.) For a household’s income tax payments to solely cover that cost at the current 1% rate, the household would need to earn $1,003,200 per year for each child.

The median household income in the Pickerington Local School District is $114,471, according to censusreporter.org.

This calculation does not include property taxes. As Pickerington Online will discuss in the next article in this series, voter-approved property taxes cannot collect revenue beyond the total amount detailed on the ballot.

Income Tax for Retirees

In Ohio, Social Security income is not taxed. Therefore, residents who rely solely on Social Security as their fixed income would not be affected by the proposed increase.

However, seniors who receive additional income — such as interest or pension income — would pay the school income tax on those sources.

How Much More Would I Pay?

Currently, district residents pay a 1% income tax to the schools.

To estimate what you pay now, multiply your income by 0.01. For example, someone earning $100,000 currently pays $1,000 per year to the district, or just under $20 per week.

If voters approve the 1.25% increase, the total tax rate would become 2.25%. That means multiplying income by 0.0225. For someone earning $100,000, the total school income tax would be $2,250 per year, or a little over $43 per week.

At 2.25%, Pickerington Schools would have the highest school income tax rate in the state. However, the district states that “even with an additional 1.25% income tax, Pickerington and Violet Township residents will still pay less than those with the same income and housing values in Hilliard, Gahanna, Westerville and Reynoldsburg.”

Part 2 of this series will examine how property taxes are structured.