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Factors That Affect The Outcome Of A General Fund Referendum In Indiana, Andrew Charles Sargent

Open Access Dissertations

School finance elections in Indiana were a relatively rare occurrence prior to a series of new legislation enacted in 2008 that, through the imposition of property tax caps statewide, resulted in sweeping reforms to education funding. These new laws coupled with a national recession resulted in many school districts not having the necessary financial resources to maintain programming and personnel consistent with their needs. With this in mind, many of these districts turned to the General Fund referendum as a mechanism to raise more revenue for their districts through an increase in local property taxes as decided by the voters …