Those that don’t pay, and those that get paid, were the leading donors to Issue 13, which adds a second tax levy to support Sinclair Community College. Leading the way were the two hospital systems who donated over $130,000 to the campaign. These “not-for-profit” institutions, where their C-level executives make seven figure salaries, and yet pay nothing in property taxes- find it fits their budget to subsidize the levy campaign- since they rely on Sinclair to pay for training for their employees.

If we removed their tax-exempt status, and asked them to pay property taxes, there would be no need for an additional levy. Removing tax exemptions to any company where the C-level executives make over a million a year would be a good start toward solving income inequality in the United States.

Other large donors include kickbacks from the people the campaign spent over $360,000 proving that Sinclair levy’s are good for some businesses, while making the rest of us less competitive with higher taxes Note, Burges & Burges isn’t even a local firm- with Sinclair feeling the need to go to Euclid- a suburb of Cleveland for their campaign.

Sinclair Community College levy

In Montgomery County the largest total contribution went to the Sinclair Community College levy campaign, according to pre-general election campaign finance reports filed Thursday with the Montgomery County Board of Elections.The campaign for the 1-mill, 8-year additional property tax levy raised $247,220, more than half from Dayton’s two largest hospital networks.

Combining that with money brought forward from earlier fundraising, Citizens for Sinclair spent $452,532 and has on hand $263,524 going into the final leg of the campaign. The money was spent primarily on advertising buys for television, radio, print and direct mail.

“Those employers and individuals who have contributed certainly see this as an investment in the community,” said Madeline Iseli, vice president for advancement for Sinclair and campaign executive on loan from the college. “Sinclair is about helping them have the educated and trained employees that this community needs so that we can continue to grow the jobs for today and tomorrow.

”The new operating and capital improvement levy would pay to boost manufacturing and health programming, including building a new health sciences facility.If approved by voters the new levy would be one of two used by the school for its Montgomery County programs and students. Sinclair’s other levy is for 3.2 mills and officials say the new levy would help offset revenue losses on that levy stemming from declines in property values in the county.

The largest contributor to the levy campaign was Premier Health, with $100,000, followed by Kettering Health Network, which contributed $30,000. Iseli said 40 to 50 percent of the college’s health sciences graduates are employed by those hospital systems.

“We have just been really strong partners for many many years,” said Peggy Mark, chief learning officer for Premier Health. “We get great graduates from Sinclair.

”Kettering Health Network Chief Executive Officer Fred Manchur said the company is grateful to Sinclair for educating so many of its employees and “education produces a strong local workforce.

”Other large contributors to the campaign included the Montgomery County Human Services Levy and the University of Dayton, both of which gave $10,000 each. Sinclair President Steven Johnson gave $5,000 and the levy attracted $3,000 in financial support from levy campaign consultant Burges & Burges Strategists of Euclid and $5,000 from The Ohlmann Group Inc., the Dayton marketing and advertising firm that does media buys for the levy.

The levy committee paid Burges and Burges $33,324 for services during the reporting period. Ohlmann was paid $332,871 for media buys.

Source: Issue 3 backers spend $15.3M