EARLY FINANCIAL PLANNING PAYS DIVIDENDS - David Conley, Managing Director, Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc.

Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. ("Baird") will be working with Ottawa-Glandorf Local School District on the November 2008 bond issue. Baird specializes in school finance and offers the most comprehensive services to Ohio school districts.

Because of early planning, Ottawa-Glandorf Schools has the opportunity to issue new bonds without needing to increase the amount of taxes currently being paid by taxpayers for bonds. As the finance professional chosen by the district, I originally set up the 2002 bond issue with a built in tax drop. This drop was created with the expectation that the district would need the second phase of the school's project around 2010. In essence, when the drop occurs, new bonds can be issued without increasing the need for additional tax dollars when combining the issues together.

Basically, the new bonds would be partly supported by taxes from existing residents from the tax drop, and partly from new residents and businesses joining the community in the future. By design, businesses and individuals moving to Ottawa and Glandorf will begin paying approximately the same amount of taxes that existing taxpayers have paid historically. Under normal conditions, those future taxpayers would actually pay less in taxes than you are today.

By holding future taxpayers to the same tax cost as your payment, the district will have extra money from which to pay bonds.

The future tax payer will also be paying $1 a year, now totaling $2 available for new bond payments. Without the "no" new tax plan, the existing tax payer would be required to pay more than $1 a year for both the existing and new school building projects.

The "no" new tax plan is a great opportunity that many school districts never get. Baird looks forward to helping Ottawa-Glandorf Schools achieve its goal of new school buildings without raising taxes.

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