Ohio Voters Reject Sales-Tax Hike for Schools

By Kerry A. White

It's back to the finance drawing board in Ohio.

More than a year after the state's highest court ordered lawmakers to revamp Ohio's system of paying for schools, voters overwhelmingly rejected a major part of that overhaul last week: a proposed 1-cent sales-tax increase for schools and property-tax relief for homeowners.

State Issue 2, which promised to raise $1.1 billion a year in funding to be divided evenly between schools and homeowners, met a crushing defeat, 80 percent to 20 percent, on the statewide primary-election ballot May 5. Some 28 percent of the electorate turned out for the primary, compared with 33 percent in 1994, according to the...