"Housing slump pinches schools" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: Housing slump pinches schools
Charlie Boss
The Columbus Dispatch
May 26, 2008

...Schools are another victim of the housing downturn and sluggish economy. Most local revenue for school districts comes through real-estate taxes, which typically grow with home construction, Franklin County Auditor Joe Testa said. But that growth has flattened, based on a comparison of tax collections for February of this year with those of a year earlier.

Testa said some of the revenue shortfall was expected: A stale home-building market was not going to bring in as much new money as had been projected.

But some of the decline wasn't as easy to forecast. Several school- district treasurers said tax delinquencies and refunds to homeowners who challenge the tax valuation of their properties are on the rise...