Logan County Nickel Tax faces delays after successful petition

LOGAN COUNTY, Ky. – In June, the Logan County Board of Education approved a new tax called the Nickel Tax to help bring in millions of more dollars to the Logan County school system.

The tax faced opposition, though, as a petition successfully halted the tax’s progress, now requiring a vote by Logan County residents to approve its implementation. That now leaves Logan County schools with three options moving forward.

“We can either hold a special election or we can completely drop the issue. Or we can push it to the next general election, which is November 3rd of 2026. It’s definitely not something that we can drop. This is an important need for our community. It’s an important need for our school district, and our board wants to move forward with that. And so that’s what we’re going to do. And so our plan is to put this on the November 2026 ballot,” said Dan Costellow, the superintendent for Logan County Public Schools.

With this delay in voting, and funding for Logan County schools, schools like Auburn Elementary, who have the fastest growing student population in the county, will have to wait before that problem is addressed. And if the tax fails to vote, Logan County schools could be forced to make some serious decisions.

“The result will be, redistricting. We can’t continue to put 30 students in that existing building. At some point, it’s going to be overfilled. And so we have to move students around. And that’s probably going to impact all of our schools. The other thing is it just delays the process. It delays that project at Auburn, but it delays some other projects that we’re looking at for our other buildings as well. So it’s important that we move fast in order to provide facilities that are comparable to surrounding districts and safe and efficient, and adequate for our students, ” Costellow said.

The delay does provide an opportunity for the school system to educate the public on their needs, and invite them to participate in meetings scheduled for the future.

“The one opportunity that this delay presents is more time to educate the public. We want them to understand why we’re doing what we’re doing, and we’re going to have some opportunities for people to come in here for those reasons. We plan to have some forums, both as a part of this process, but as part of the district facilities plan process, so people can ask questions, people can have input and people can have a better understanding of why we’re doing this,” Costellow said.

The Nickel Tax, if passed, would be an increase in the Logan County property taxes affecting Logan County real estate. Residents of Russellville would not see an increase in their taxes nor would the taxes be implemented on vehicles. Logan County Public Schools will have meetings open to the public in the future to discuss thoughts, questions or concerns when it comes to the Nickel Tax and other future projects.