COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – When the Columbus City School board voted in August to remove a levy and bond issue from voters’ ballots, citing the community’s economic challenges, board members promised they would bring the issues to voters as soon as possible.

On Tuesday night, the board unanimously decided that now is the time to seek additional funds.

“We can’t wait,” board member Michael Cole said. “If there’s a question of, ‘Why now?’ The answer is: The longer we wait, the more we kick this down the road, the more expensive it becomes.”

Columbus City Schools district residents will decide in November whether to approve two tax levies, one to fund operating costs and another to establish a reserve for maintenance and upkeep of the district’s buildings. An existing half-mill levy funded the replacement of dozens of outdated HVAC systems, Cole said — but it doesn’t go far enough.

“This is helping us close the gap,” Cole said. “We have had more than a yearlong discussion about why this is important, because we know that we have aging assets.”

The district seeks a 3-mill levy for current operating expenses and a 4.7-mill permanent improvement levy for capital improvements. Each mill is equal to one-tenth of a cent, or $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. For every $100,000 of a property’s taxable value – which is 35% of its market value – the proposed levies would add a combined $269.50 in taxes each year.

The school board voted last May to place the permanent improvement levy and a $680 million bond issue on voters’ ballots for maintenance and repairs. But it wasn’t the right time, board president Jennifer Adair said just three months later.

“We understand that we have a lot more work to do as a board, as a district, to let the community know and understand that we have done the work and research and we know that these are the solutions to the root cause problems of our district,” Adair said at the time.

In the 15 months since, the board has done that, board member Eric Brown said. But he cautioned that the open dialogue must continue.

“We have to not only provide for the education of our young people, but also to be good fiscal stewards of our public resources,” Brown said. “We know that those are hard to come by, and we need to make sure that we continue to be transparent and that we use those resources wisely and prudently.”

The declaration of necessity will be forwarded to the Franklin County Auditor for certification and calculation of estimated revenue. In August, the board will vote to put the levies on the ballot and will deliver the resolution to the Franklin County Board of Elections.