Fishers voter explains ‘no’ vote on HSE Schools referendum

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Dear Editor:

I am a lifelong Fishers resident, and I will be voting no on the Hamilton Southeastern Schools referendum on Nov. 3.

This vote isn’t to spite our teachers or schools, I believe that both are very good for society, however it is simply a vote to keep life affordable for the average family of this city.

Due to the state law, SEA-1, that passed last year, the average family in Indiana pays less in property taxes, which in today’s economy could mean a lot for the affordability of individual families in Fishers.

The new referendum that is to be voted on this November would make up for the money not being taken in because of SEA-1 by raising property taxes in the district to give more money to our teachers and schools. The problem with this, however, is that enrollment for schools district-wide is at decade lows; only around 19,800 new enrollments were counted for 2026, which is the first time this number has been sub-20,000 in over 10 years. This is far from a onetime occurrence, too; the enrollment for schools in the district has been steadily decreasing for the past seven years now!

When you take into account this and the fact that the budget for schools have followed the exact opposite trend and have actually gone up by $43 million in two years, it starts to get a little foggy as to why we should put more strain on the families of our city by raising their taxes to provide more money for under-enrolled schools.

A plan that I would rather see is one that matches the spending for schools to the rate of enrollment per year, which only makes sense. Until then I do not believe that families around the district should be forced to pay more, which is why I will say no to the proposed referendum on Nov. 3.

Sawyer A. Gwin
Fishers