Campaign Expenditures in School Levy Referenda and Their Relationship to Voter Approval: Evidence From Ohio, 2007–2010

We examine whether the salience of the property tax liability implications of voting yes on a school bond referendum affects bond approval rates. We exploit the fact that school districts in Minnesota are required to explicitly note the property tax implications of voting yes on bond referenda in bold capital letters on a ballot while districts in the neighboring state of Wisconsin are only required to inform voters of the amount of bonds to be issued. Using data on local school bond passage rates from Minnesota and Wisconsin over the period 2008–2017, we find that when the property tax implications of voting yes are more salient, the fraction of voters favoring bond passage declines by approximately four to seven percentage points and the probability of bond passage falls by approximately ten percentage points. These results are robust to numerous specification checks including propensity score weighting methods and leveraging the geographic distance between school districts in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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“…In contrast, Ingle et al () finds that the probability of bond passage increases with the number of attempts.…”

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confidence: 99%

Information, Tax Salience, and Support for School Bond Referenda

Brunner

Robbins

Simonsen

2018

Public Budgeting & Finance

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“…With regard to the second research question, How do district actions and constraints affect facilities quality and equitable investment?, this study found that the majority of district leaders and staff are familiar with and using the available taxation mechanisms and programs to obtain funding for their facilities. In short, their actions are not lacking; in fact, these leaders largely demonstrated strategic financial planning, and their actions and expertise maximized the potential funding for their district's facilities programs (Bowers & Chen, 2015;Bowers & Lee, 2013;Ingle, Johnson, Ryan Givens, & Rampelt, 2013;Milder, 2011;Stover, 2012). However, several San Antonio districts expressed lacking the staff capacity to maintain high-quality facilities for all students due to policy shortfalls that prevented them from equitably raising funds, relative to their more affluent neighboring districts.…”

Section: Discussion and Policy Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While school districts hoping to raise funds for facilities are limited by state policies and funding programs, recent research has begun to identify factors associated with facilities investment that districts can influence, such as bond campaign expenditures (Ingle, Johnson, Ryan Givens, & Rampelt, 2013), and refloats, amount of the bond, bond wording, day of the year, voter turnout, and ballot number (Bowers & Chen, 2015;Bowers & Lee, 2013). Researchers have also identified the sequence of decisions school district officials make in the facilities bond issuing process (Harris & Munley, 2002) and strategies that school board members working to pass bonds can follow (Milder, 2011;Stover, 2012).…”

Section: Research Comparing State Facilities Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some pennies are more equal than others: Inequitable school facilities investment in San Antonio, Texas

Rivera¹,

Lopez²

2019

EPAA

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In Texas, local taxpayers fund the majority of educational facilities construction and maintenance costs, with local wealth influencing facilities outcomes. The traditional school districts that comprise the predominantly Latino and segregated San Antonio area vary considerably in property wealth as well as district capacity and expertise. We conducted an analysis of 12 San Antonio area school districts to address the questions: 1) To what extent do state and local investments vary by district? 2) How do district actions and constraints affect facilities quality and equitable investment? Methods include descriptive quantitative analysis of facilities investment data and qualitative interviews with school district leaders, staff, and school finance experts. Examining Texas school finance data demonstrated the variance in school district investments in educational facilities. Despite some districts with lower property wealth exerting higher levels of tax effort, they were able to raise less money per student for educational facilities through interest and sinking taxes. Interview findings revealed that several districts acknowledge lacking the capacity to maintain high-quality facilities for all students. Respondents frequently criticized current state policies and funding for educational facilities as inadequate, inequitable, and inefficient and expressed a need for policy improvements in an era of increasing state disinvestment.

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“…School administrators are keenly interested in strategies that influence bond election outcomes (; ; ; ). It is widely believed that low (high) turnout increases (decreases) the chances of passing a school bond ().…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Voter Turnout Influence School Bond Elections?

Gong

Rogers

2014

Southern Economic Journal

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This article investigates the role of voter turnout in school bond election outcomes. It is widely believed that turnout is negatively related to bond approval rates. Conclusions from previous empirical research, however, may be misleading because many sociodemographic factors and election parameters that influence bond support are also likely to influence voter turnout decisions. To account for the endogeneity of turnout, we employ an instrumental variable approach. We find that the persistent part of voter turnout plays a negligible role in explaining bond approval shares conditioned on election timing, past voting behavior, and district characteristics. Using first-difference models, change in turnout has a negative and significant influence on change in approval share and probability of bond success. Our results support previous research and suggest that targeted voter mobilization strategies have the potential to influence school bond outcomes.

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Campaign Expenditures in School Levy Referenda and Their Relationship to Voter Approval: Evidence From Ohio, 2007–2010

Cited by 11 publications

References 43 publications

Information, Tax Salience, and Support for School Bond Referenda

Information, Tax Salience, and Support for School Bond Referenda

Some pennies are more equal than others: Inequitable school facilities investment in San Antonio, Texas

Does Voter Turnout Influence School Bond Elections?

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