Have no fear, the secretary of the state Department of Education has told public school administrators. School districts won't need to reopen their budgets for the next school year to comply with a property tax relief bill expected to be signed into law shortly.

The bill, which passed the state House June 14, changes the rules on when and how districts must pass their budgets. A number of the deadlines in the bill already have passed this year.

The bill gave Karns City School District officials extra cause to worry because the percentage increase in property taxes the school board passed June 12 exceeds what the law would allow.

The bill calls for a judge to grant the district permission to raise taxes if the increase is more than what is set by the state. The requirement is for the next budget year only. Subsequent high increases would need to be approved by the voters.

However, state Secretary of Education Gerald Zahorchak told superintendents through an e-mail recently that districts "do not need to adjust their budgeting practices at this time."

Karns City Superintendent Larry Henry, who heads one of the two districts in Butler County above an index that would require a judge's approval, breathed a hesitant sigh of relief when he received the message.

But he's still watching for follow-up legislation.

"My sense is that the regulations and timeline won't go into effect until next year," he said.

The index is a percentage based on inflation and other factors including average income in the district. It is determined by the state for each district and ranges in the Butler County area from 3.9 percent for Mars to 6 percent for Union school districts.

Cathy Rodgers, business manager for the Butler School District, said the index will be an important number to districts in the future because the bill requires tax increases to be lower than the index if the district wants to avoid having to go to court for a higher tax hike.

The index is calculated by multiplying the base number by the sum of the district's aid ratio and 0.75.

Using this formula, Butler's index for 2006-07 is 5.2 percent, which allows it to raise taxes up to 5.6 mills. A tax hike of 4.5 mills was approved by the school board Monday.

Butler's total tax rate is 111.5 mills.

As the aid ratio is recalculated each year, the index number fluctuates. For example, the South Butler School District's index for 2006-07 is 4.9 percent, but in 2003-04 it would have been 3.6 percent.

For a district such as South Butler, where the millage for the current fiscal year is 107 mills, the fluctuation means an estimated $155,522 difference in revenue the district could collect.

In the future, the bill requires districts to take tax increases above the index to the voters. Districts can get around that requirement if certain types of costs, such as retirement contributions, increase above the same index number.

"There are exemptions," Rodgers said.

For a referendum to be put on the spring primary ballot, districts must pass a preliminary budget much earlier than they do now, which is usually in May. To avoid passing a preliminary budget months before the state tells districts how much state money they will get, school boards may pass a resolution stating the district's taxes will not increase above the index.

Either way, voters will see a tax question in the 2007 primary. The bill requires a question on the ballot asking voters if they want to exchange a higher wage tax for lower property taxes.

Most districts have a 0.5 percent or 1 percent earned income tax, and the voters in each district may choose to increase that tax to fund homestead and farmstead property tax exemptions. The amount the income tax would increase would be calculated separately for each district.