Gov. John Kasich signed an Ohio House bill Wednesday that means Delaware County residents will not have to vote a second time on a renewal levy for the Delaware Area Career Center.

State Representatives Andrew Brenner (R-Powell) and Rick Carfagna (R-Genoa Township) authored House Bill 124, which extends the renewal levy in Delaware County and only places the levy back on the ballot in portions of Franklin, Marion, Morrow, and Union counties served by DACC.

The bill was approved by the House on May 17 and was sent to the Senate Ways and Means Committee. An amended version of the bill approved on June 21 by the Senate.

The DACC had taken steps to put a 0.8-mill levy on the ballot in all five counties again this November to replace the 2015 levy.

During a June Board of Education meeting, DACC Superintendent Mary Beth Freeman said that if HB 124 was signed by the governor, the DACC would remove the five-county levy and replace it with a levy just for voters in Franklin, Marion, Morrow, and Union counties.

In 2015, voters in Delaware County passed the DACC’s renewal levy by 10,644 votes and the DACC would have begun collecting taxes this January from Delaware County, as well as small portions of the other four counties.

However, DACC officials learned last December that the Ohio Department of Taxation would not approve the levy because 1,026 people who reside in portions of Franklin, Marion, Morrow, and Union counties that are part of the career center district were not able to vote on the levy since it did not appear on the ballot in those areas.

During a meeting on June 15, the Delaware Area Career Center Board of Education voted to formally halt construction at the consolidated campus until a repeat of their renewal levy be placed on the ballot. Construction will temporarily end June 30.