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Voters will be asked to authorize a maximum tax rate of 57 cents. The figure most often quoted in public is about $2.30 a month. Both are real — but they answer different questions. Here's the gap, and a calculator to find your own.
The figure that's quoted
$2.30 /mo
The first-year step of the phase-in, on a $350,000 home, measured against today's bill. Roughly a 1.4¢ rate increase.
VS
The cost at the full authorized rate
$32.72 /mo
The increase over today once the rate reaches the 57¢ maximum the ballot authorizes — on the same $350,000 home.
Same house. Same referendum. The difference is which year you're standing in — and whether you're measuring the first step or the destination. About 14× apart.
01
What's actually on the ballot
The Noblesville Schools Board of Trustees voted unanimously on June 9, 2026 to put an updated operating referendum on the November ballot. The current referendum — approved in 2018 at 37 cents per $100 of assessed value — expires at the end of 2026. If nothing replaces it, the district says roughly $25 million a year, about a fifth of its operating budget, goes away.
Current rate
37¢
Proposed max
57¢
At stake/yr
~$25M
Runs through
2034
The new rate is higher than 2018's because of Senate Enrolled Act 1, the 2025 state property-tax law that cut school revenue. The district says it needs a higher ceiling to raise a comparable amount of money — and that it does not plan to levy the full 57 cents right away.
02
Why two numbers, and why it matters
The ballot authorizes a ceiling, not a fixed rate. The district plans a gradual climb toward 57 cents rather than jumping there in one year. So the small monthly figures you'll see in press coverage describe the first step of that climb; the 57-cent number describes where the authorization ultimately lets the rate go.
The district's own phrasing is the tell. Officials described the plan as costing the median taxpayer "just under $2.50 a month" — year over year. That "year over year" means each annual step adds roughly that much, accumulating toward the cap. It is not the total at the top.
Neither number is dishonest. But a voter deciding how to vote is authorizing the ceiling, so the ceiling is the number worth understanding. The calculator below shows both, for any home value.
03
Find your number
Enter your home's assessed value. The tool applies Indiana's homestead deductions, then computes the referendum tax at any point along the rate climb — and at the 57-cent ceiling.
$
Increase at this year's rate
$2.30 /mo
vs. today's 37¢ bill
Increase at the 57¢ cap
$32.72 /mo
vs. today's 37¢ bill
Drag to walk the rate up year by year2027 · 38.4¢
2026 · 37¢2034 · 57¢
At 38.4¢, the referendum costs $62.83/mo on this home — $2.30/mo more than today.
The phase-in shown anchors the first year to the district's stated ~$2.30/mo step, then climbs to 57¢ by 2034. The district's exact year-by-year schedule isn't in any public document yet — it lives in the May 19 board presentation and, ultimately, the certified ballot language. Treat the middle years as illustrative; the endpoints (37¢ today, 57¢ ceiling) and the first step are anchored to stated figures.
04
The full climb, $350,000 home
Year
Rate
Annual
Monthly
+/mo vs now
How to read this: the "+/mo vs now" column is the new money a homeowner feels versus today's 37¢ bill — the honest measure of the increase, since the existing referendum is what's expiring and being replaced. The bottom row is the cost at the full ceiling.
05
How the math works
Start from net, not gross. Indiana subtracts a $48,000 standard homestead deduction and a 35% supplemental deduction before any school rate applies. A $350,000 home has a net assessed value near $196,000.
Referendum tax = net value × rate. At 57¢ per $100, that's net AV × 0.0057. No mystery — just the rate against the reduced value.
Referendum dollars skip the cap. Indiana's 1% circuit-breaker cap protects most of your bill, but voter-approved referendum levies are explicitly exempt and get no income-tax replacement credit. That's why this portion is felt in full.
SEA 1's "discount coupon" lives elsewhere. The state's new homestead credit lowers the non-referendum part of a bill. It softens the total you pay, but it doesn't change the referendum figures shown here.
06
Check it yourself
Two official references settle the open questions. The DLGF Referendum Impact Calculator computes the burden at the maximum rate — it should match the "57¢ cap" figures here. And the certified ballot language, once Hamilton County finalizes it, must state both the 57-cent maximum and an estimated average annual increase. Hold any campaign claim — for or against — against those two documents.