Mason schools will not be putting a levy on the ballot in May.

Instead, Warren County’s largest school district will be making an additional $6 million in cost reductions throughout the next two years in order to further stretch an operating levy approved by voters in 2005.

The district’s school board announced the decision at its regularly scheduled Tuesday, Jan. 22, meeting.

In 2007, Mason schools received $14 million in tangible personal property tax and TPP reimbursement, revenue that comes from local businesses sending tax money to the state and the state sending money to the school district. For fiscal year 2013, the amount received by the district via that revenue shrinks to less than $7 million, according to Gail Kist-Kline, the district’s superintendent.

That’s a “significant change” in revenue, one that is expected to continue, making local taxes a greater responsibility for the district, she said.

A normal levy cycle produces surpluses in the first half of the cycle and deficits in the second half, she said. Mason is now at the end of the levy cycle, when expenditures exceed revenues and operating cash balances are shrinking.

By June 2014, the district will still have two-and-a-half months of operating cash, Kist-Kline said.

“We can make it for another year, if we need, if our revenues do not decline,” she said.

During 31 in-home “coffees” held by the district in the past several months, area residents expressed uncertainty of the economy and uneasiness regarding their financial situation, Kist-Kline said.

“With that uncertainty, the feedback was ‘not now,’” she said.

Mason schools will learn and be able to decide more about its financial future when the state budget is finalized, Kist-Kline said. Gov. John Kasich is scheduled to release his budget on Feb. 4.

In addition, not attempting to put a levy before voters in May means not incurring the expense of putting a measure on the ballot at a time when no other measures are scheduled to be voted upon, Kist-Kline said.

The district last put a levy on the ballot in November 2010, a “phased-in” measure that was its lowest millage rate request in 30 years. Voters rejected the levy request by a 53.27 to 46.73 percent margin.

In the last two years, the district has reduced spending by more than $6 million by enacting a series of cost-cutting measures, including eliminating 130 positions, closing Mason Heights Elementary School, freezing wage increases for all staff in the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years, consolidating bus stops and enacting pay-to-participate fees.

Board President Kevin Wise decried the loss of the tangible personal property tax, which involves businesses sending money to Columbus and Columbus sending money back to school districts.

“Instead of being a round-trip ticket, it’s now a one-way ticket,” Wise said. “Our businesses in Mason now aren’t funding the schools in the way they used to, but they’re still paying the same or more amount of taxes. Those taxes are going to Columbus and stopping.”