How Much Would the Sylvania Schools Earned Income Tax Cost?

Sylvania Schools has a 1% earned income tax on the November 3, 2026 ballot, paired with a 1.7 mill property tax reduction. The two pieces move in opposite directions, and almost every conversation I have had about it in the last few weeks has mixed them up. Here are both numbers, from the district's own published estimates: the 1% costs $1,000 a year on $100,000 of earned income, and the 1.7 mill reduction gives back about $35 a year for every $100,000 of home value. On the median Sylvania house that reduction is roughly $129. So for a working household the income tax side is the bigger number by a factor of five or more, and for a household living on retirement income the math runs the other way entirely.

I am not telling anybody how to vote. I sell houses in this district and I get asked what it does to a payment, so this is the arithmetic, sourced, both directions.

What Is Sylvania Schools Asking For on the November 3 Ballot?

The Sylvania Board of Education approved the resolution on July 22, 2026 and it goes to voters on November 3. The ask is a 1% earned income tax with a 1.7 mill property tax reduction attached to it.

That pairing is the part people keep missing. It is not a property tax levy. In May 2026 the district did run a property tax levy, 7.9 mills for operations, and it lost with about 60 percent of voters against it. The district's own read on that result, in the materials it put out afterward, was that the community did not want to fund the district through property taxes. So the November version shifts the ask onto earned income and takes a slice off the property tax side at the same time.

The district says the last time Sylvania voters approved additional operating money was 2016. It also says it has cut more than $2 million over the past two years, including budget reductions, teaching positions, high school counselors and media specialists, and administrative salaries, and that absorbing three administrative positions this summer saved another $380,000 heading into fiscal year 2027.

How Much Would the 1% Earned Income Tax Cost Me?

The district publishes its own estimate table, and these are its numbers, not mine.

Earned income	What the 1% would cost per year
$50,000	$500
$100,000	$1,000
$150,000	$1,500
$200,000	$2,000
$250,000	$2,500

A two-earner household at $150,000 of combined W-2 income is looking at $1,500 a year, which is $125 a month. That is not a rounding error on a budget. It is roughly a car payment's worth of difference, and it is worth running your own number before November rather than after.

What Income Is Taxed, and What Is Not?

This is an earned income tax, which in Ohio is a narrower base than the version some districts use. Per the district's levy FAQ:

Taxed:

1. W-2 wages, salaries, tips and other employee compensation, measured after pre-tax deductions such as traditional 401(k) and 403(b) contributions, health, dental and vision premiums, FSA and HSA contributions.
2. Net self-employment profit from a sole proprietorship, independent contracting or a partnership.

Not taxed:

1. Social Security and pension income.
2. IRA, 401(k), 403(b), 457 and Roth distributions.
3. Investment income, meaning interest, dividends and capital gains.
4. Estate, trust and inheritance income, gifts, life insurance proceeds, disability, workers' compensation and alimony.

Two owners on the same Sylvania street, in houses worth the same money, can owe wildly different amounts under this proposal depending on where their income comes from. That is the whole design of an earned income tax, and it is why the property tax reduction is attached to it.

How Much Would My Property Taxes Go Down?

The district estimates the 1.7 mill reduction as follows.

Home value	Estimated annual property tax reduction
$100,000	$35
$200,000	$70
$300,000	$105
$400,000	$140
$500,000	$175

Now put a Sylvania house under it. I pulled every closed sale in the NORIS MLS for the city of Sylvania and Sylvania Township with a 2026 close date, 316 single-family closings from January 2 through September 1. The median close price was $369,450. Seventy-two percent of those houses closed at $300,000 or more.

At the district's $35 per $100,000, a $369,450 house lands around $129 a year. On a $500,000 house it is $175. That is money, and it is also, for a working household, about a tenth of what the income tax side costs.

If you want your exact number instead of the estimate, pull your current Lucas County tax bill and find the Sylvania school district lines on it. That bill is the only document that knows what your house is actually valued at and which reductions you already have. If you are claiming the homestead exemption, that interacts with the property tax side too, and I wrote up how the homestead exemption works in Lucas and Wood County separately. The broader picture of how property taxes work in the Toledo area is worth reading alongside it.

Who Pays It, and Does Where I Work Matter?

Residency decides. The district FAQ puts it in one sentence: only residents of Sylvania Schools pay the tax, and non-residents working inside the district do not pay it.

That sentence is doing more work than it looks like. It means the school district boundary is the line that matters, not the city limits, not the township, and not your mailing address. Sylvania Schools does not stop where the city of Sylvania stops, and an address with a Sylvania mailing address is not automatically in the district. If you are buying this fall and you are trying to work out whether this would apply to you, the only reliable answer comes from confirming the assigned school district for that specific parcel, through the district's own map or the county, before you write an offer. Do not take the listing remarks' word for it.

It also means a commute does not get you out of it and does not get you into it. Somebody who lives in the district and drives to a job in Perrysburg would pay. Somebody who lives outside the district and works at an employer inside it would not.

If you are weighing the district line itself as part of a move, the Sylvania market page and the Sylvania versus Perrysburg comparison lay out what the two sides of that line cost right now.

Does This Change My Mortgage Payment?

Only a little, and in the direction people do not expect.

Your escrow account holds property taxes and homeowners insurance. If the measure passes, the property tax half of that gets slightly smaller, which means the escrow portion of your payment gets slightly smaller, roughly $11 a month on the median Sylvania house. An income tax does not live in escrow. It comes out of earned income.

I look at the tax line on every lender estimate that crosses my desk, and I will tell you what happens if this passes and nobody says anything: a buyer sees the property tax figure tick down, feels good about it, and has no idea a 1% on wages is riding along with the address. That is a $1,500 a year surprise on a $150,000 household income, and a lender's monthly payment estimate will never show it to you, because it is not a housing cost in the way a lender defines one. If you are shopping inside this district right now, put the number in your own budget by hand.

What Does This Mean If I Am Buying or Selling in Sylvania Right Now?

If you are selling, expect the question. Buyers touring your house between now and the first week of November will ask what is on the ballot and what it does to the tax line, and the ones who are paying attention will ask what happens if it fails. Have the numbers ready. A seller who can hand a buyer the district's own estimate table looks like somebody who knows the neighborhood, and a seller who shrugs at it invites the buyer to go imagine something worse.

If you are buying, run both numbers against your own W-2 before you set your price ceiling, not after you are in a contract. The property tax reduction nudges your qualifying math a hair in your favor. The income tax does not touch your qualifying math at all, because it is not a debt and it is not a housing expense, which means your lender can approve you for a payment your actual take-home cannot carry as comfortably as the approval letter suggests.

And whatever happens on November 3, nothing about the result tells you what a specific house is worth. Values move on inventory, condition and what the next buyer will pay. I have not seen a levy outcome move a price in this market by itself, and I would not promise you one in either direction.

What Happens to the District's Budget If It Fails?

The district has published its own answer, which is the part worth reading rather than guessing at.

Its five-year forecast shows spending outrunning revenue every year through fiscal 2030. The district projects its fund balance falling from about $28.8 million at the end of fiscal 2026 to roughly $12.3 million by fiscal 2028, then going negative at about $1.4 million in the red in fiscal 2029 and about $18.7 million in the red by fiscal 2030. Ohio school districts are not permitted to end a fiscal year with a negative balance, so a forecast like that forces action with or without a levy.

On August 4, 2026 the district sent parents and community members a letter laying out the positions, programs, curriculum, activities and other expenses it says would be reduced or eliminated beginning with the 2027-28 school year if the November 3 measure is not approved. If you want to know specifically what is on that list, read the letter itself on the district's levy information page rather than anybody's summary of it, mine included.

The district also points at Ohio's Fair School Funding Plan as part of the squeeze. Because Sylvania's local property values and household incomes run higher than many Ohio districts, the formula assumes more of the funding can be raised locally, so a smaller share arrives from the state. The district says its general fund expenses have grown about 2.93 percent a year on average since 2019.

What a Sylvania Owner Should Take Away From This

A 1% earned income tax costs a working Sylvania household real money, roughly $1,000 a year per $100,000 of earned income. The 1.7 mill property tax reduction gives back about $35 a year per $100,000 of home value, which is about $129 on the median Sylvania house. Residency in the school district is what triggers the income tax, not the city line and not your commute. Retirement income, investment income and Social Security are outside the base. Neither piece belongs in a lender's escrow estimate except the property tax reduction, so nobody in the transaction is going to hand you the full number unless you ask for it.

Thinking about buying or selling in Sylvania this fall and want your own number run both ways, off your actual tax bill and your actual income, before you decide anything? Send me the address and I will put it together. You can also start with a current value on your Sylvania home.

Adam Geuy, Realtor - Blacktree Realty. ABR, PSA, SRS. Greater Toledo, Ohio. 419.540.8659.