If you own property inside the Indianapolis Public Schools boundary, the way your school tax dollars get divided changed this year — and the body deciding how much you'll pay next is one most homeowners had never heard of six months ago.
The 2026 Indiana General Assembly created the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation (IPEC), a nine-member, mayor-appointed board that sits above both IPS and the charter schools operating inside IPS boundaries. IPEC's job, under House Enrolled Act 1423, is to set the formula that distributes property tax revenue among IPS and those charters — and, right now, to decide what referendum tax rate to put in front of voters this November. WFYI reported on the legislation when it passed in February, and as of this week the rate debate is fully joined.
This is a different story from the circuit-breaker squeeze we covered in our IPS cap-loss analysis. Cap losses are about tax revenue that never gets collected. IPEC is about who receives the revenue that is collected — and how big the pot should be.
How the sharing formula phases in
The core of the new law is mandatory property tax sharing. Charter schools educating kids who live inside IPS boundaries now get a slice of the property tax levy that previously flowed entirely to the district. The phase-in runs:
| Year | Share of eligible property tax revenue shared with charters |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 33% |
| 2027 | 66% |
| 2028 and after | 100% |
"100%" doesn't mean charters get all the money — it means the sharing formula applies at full strength, with dollars following students to whichever public school (district or charter) they actually attend.
The fiscal stakes depend on whose projection you believe. The Legislative Services Agency's analysis puts IPS's loss at nearly $14 million across 2026 through 2028 as the phase-in ramps. IPS officials project a much bigger long-run number: roughly $96 million by 2032, once full sharing compounds across years. Both figures are estimates of the same policy viewed over different horizons, and both were aired repeatedly during the legislative fight.
Note
Your tax bill doesn't change because of sharing alone. The sharing formula reallocates dollars among schools; it doesn't raise or lower the levy by itself. What changes your bill is the second thing IPEC controls: the referendum rate question heading to the November 2026 ballot.
The authorizing squeeze
A companion provision matters for the long-run shape of the city's school landscape: since April 1, 2026, only three entities can authorize or renew charter schools within IPS boundaries — the Indiana Charter School Board, the Indianapolis Office of Education Innovation (the mayor's office authorizer), and IPS itself. Other authorizers, including universities, are out of the picture for new schools inside the boundary. Combined with the sharing formula, the legislature has effectively consolidated both the money and the gatekeeping for Indianapolis public education under bodies with city-level accountability.
The referendum rate fight: 20 cents to 55 cents
Here is the part that lands directly on your tax bill. IPS's existing operating referendum — the voter-approved rate stacked on top of the regular levy — is expiring, and the district faces a fiscal cliff without a replacement. Under the new law, it's IPEC, not the IPS board, that decides what rate to put before voters in November.
Per WFYI's reporting this week, the board is weighing a range that runs from roughly the current rate of close to 20 cents per $100 of assessed value up to 55 cents. WFYI's math for a $200,000 home: an annual referendum cost between about $170 and $475 depending on where the rate lands — a swing of $3 to $25 per month between the low and high options.
The June 10 listening session captured the divide. Most speakers were IPS educators arguing for a rate high enough to fund schools through the sharing transition. But homeowners pushed back hard on affordability — one Near Eastside resident told the board his property taxes have climbed from $4,000 to $13,500 over the 23 years he's owned his home, and that elderly neighbors on fixed incomes are being priced out. "We are being taxed out of our homes," as he put it.
Chalkbeat reported that IPEC is targeting the November 2026 election for the question, and the board is expected to hold a public hearing and vote on the rate at its June 22 meeting, 5 p.m., at the City-County Building. If you want your view on the record before the rate is set, that meeting is the venue.
Why referendum dollars hit harder than regular levy dollars
A structural point that makes this rate decision unusually consequential: referendum levies sit outside Indiana's circuit breaker caps. The 1% homestead cap that normally limits your bill applies to the regular levy stack — but voter-approved referendum rates are added on top of the cap. Our circuit breaker explainer covers the mechanics, but the practical version is:
- If your home is already at its 1% cap, a higher regular levy costs you nothing more — the cap absorbs it.
- A referendum rate increase costs you the full amount, every year, no cap protection.
That's why the 20-cents-versus-55-cents question is worth real money to every IPS-boundary homeowner, including those whose bills have been cap-protected through years of assessment increases. On a home assessed at $200,000 with a standard homestead deduction profile, each 10 cents of referendum rate is on the order of $85-$90 a year of uncapped tax — and apartment and commercial owners inside the boundary pay the referendum rate on their full net assessed value too.
Tip
Check whether you're even in the IPS boundary first. Marion County contains eleven school districts, and the IPS boundary covers only part of the county — roughly the older urban core. The township school districts (Washington, Wayne, Lawrence, Perry, and others) are not part of IPEC, the sharing formula, or this referendum. Look up your parcel's taxing district in the AribaTax property lookup before assuming any of this applies to you.
What sharing means for the levy you already pay
For homeowners inside the boundary, three takeaways on the sharing formula itself:
- Your existing taxes don't shrink when IPS's share does. The 33/66/100 phase-in redistributes the same levy. If IPS loses revenue to charters and concludes it can't operate on what remains, the pressure shows up as the referendum ask — which is exactly what's happening now.
- The sharing fight and the rate fight are linked. Part of the argument for a higher referendum rate is that referendum dollars will now also be shared with charters, so a rate that merely replaces the expiring one leaves IPS with less than before. Whatever number IPEC picks on June 22 has the sharing math baked in.
- Facilities are in play too. HEA 1423 also gives the IPEC board authority over IPS facilities and finances — closed or underused buildings, and the property tax implications of what happens to them, now route through the same board. Surplus school buildings returning to the tax rolls (or transferring to charters) will play out over years.
What to do before November
- Verify your taxing district in the property lookup — IPS boundary or township district.
- Pull your current bill and find the school referendum line. That's the line the November vote replaces or repeals; the bill-reading guide shows where it hides.
- Model the range. Multiply your net assessed value by 0.0020 and 0.0055 — that bracket is roughly what's on the ballot.
- Show up or submit comment before June 22 if you want to influence the rate itself; after that, your input becomes your vote in November.
- Watch the May referendum pattern. Statewide, school questions had a mixed spring — our May 2026 referendum results roundup covers how districts fared, and IPEC is unquestionably reading the same results as it picks a number voters will accept.
The IPEC era is the biggest restructuring of Indianapolis school finance in a generation, and it arrived in the same year as SEA 1's homestead credit and a shifting local income tax landscape. Every one of those threads runs through the same place: the bill on your parcel. Know your number before someone else sets it.