Why Franklin Failed
My friends at the Indy Star this morning are writing about this week’s local school referendums and conclude the mixed results don’t offer a clear trend.
Franklin and Perry Townships’ referendums failed while Beech Grove’s passed. I too was somewhat puzzled at the results until I spent some time visiting with residents from the Southern portion of Marion County.
There were a couple factors at play in Franklin Township. First, residents had already felt they’d been burned on property taxes, as Franklin Township is mostly residential property and has never had the commercial base to absorb the property tax burden. Second, the school district’s marketing campaign backfired. Although state law allowed Franklin Township to use school resources to push for the referendum, all it did was infuriate the residents even more so.
Beech Grove’s referendum passed, in part, because Beech Grove schools have a high percentage of renters. And although renters pay property taxes through their rent, they don’t get a direct bill. Thus it was the renters that put Beech Grove over the top.
As far as Perry goes, I would not be surprised if that one is subject to a possible recount. The referendum failed by 174 votes, 3851-4025, that’s about two percent. But since the votes were hand counted, there may be enough discrepancies in the tally for officials to give it another go round.
It will be interesting to see what happens next week in Hamilton Southeastern Schools. Fundamentally it will boil down to how much goodwill the school district has built in the community. I’ll be watching.
