Noblesville reader questions narrative around school operating referendum

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Dear Editor:

Noblesville Schools is insulting our intelligence. The six truths they don’t want the voters to know – Vote NO on the Noblesville School Operating Referendum.

The school board wants you to believe their new operating referendum is a harmless “$2.30 a month” adjustment on a $350,000 home. That is a flat-out deception. They are hiking the maximum tax rate from 37 cents to 57 cents – a massive 54 percent increase in their legal taxing authority.

Let’s be completely clear: this is a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

1) Noblesville already spends over $15,600 per student. That is roughly $2,000 above the Indiana state average, and a massive $4,000 MORE per student than Carmel Clay and Zionsville – two of the highest-rated school districts in the entire state. Carmel and Zionsville achieve elite academic results while managing budgets with fiscal restraint. Noblesville demands a massive tax cap hike just to outspend them.

2) When you strip away their fuzzy math, the actual rate increase alone authorizes a tax of roughly $32.70 a month on a $350,000 home. That is nearly $400 a year in new tax authority, not the pocket change they are advertising.

They are burying these numbers in fine print while Noblesville families are already drowning in historic inflation. Look at the hard facts:

3) The “$2.30” Lie:

To get that fake figure, referendum leaders are subtracting your state-issued tax relief from their new tax hike and counting on you not noticing the shell game. A 54 percent rate hike on top of today’s hyper-inflated home values is a massive tax increase, no matter how they try to hide it.

4) Massive Tax Windfalls:

From 2018 to today, local home values shot up by an average of 70 percent to 80 percent on the county tax rolls. Because our home assessments surged, the school district’s baseline property tax revenues already automatically exploded.

5) Fewer Students, Higher Spending:

Since 2018, student enrollment has dropped by over 500 kids, and demographers predict it will plummet by another 500 or more by 2030. Yet, their per-pupil spending has surged by a staggering 35 percent. They are managing a shrinking student body but demanding a larger blank check.

6) The State Relief Cash Grab:

Noblesville Schools is reaching directly into your pocket to cannibalize and take away – and then some – the tax relief you just asked Indiana legislators to give you. The Statehouse passed Senate Enrolled Act 1 to grant homeowners up to a $300 annual tax credit to ease the pain of inflation. This local school board is instantly wiping out those savings and demanding even more of your money on top of it.

The school board has fewer children to teach and more baseline revenue than ever before, yet they still expect taxpayers to foot the bill.

Vote NO on the Noblesville School Operating Referendum.

Demand honesty, real fiscal responsibility, and an end to the deception.

Toby Eiler
Noblesville