Butler County Auditor Nancy Nix’s office is working with all the county tax bodies to figure out how they can work together to give property taxpayers a break in light of a median 37% value hike ordered by the Ohio tax commissioner.
Nix has received the final property value increases from the state and the median residential value hike countywide is 37%, a drop from the original 42% increase order but still a horrendous hit for many taxpayers, especially on fixed incomes.
Warren Merrill of Hamilton told the Journal-News, “I think this is the biggest ripoff that ever come down the highway,” and the 84-year-old isn’t just worried about himself.
“I’m not just considering myself, I’ve got grandkids, I’ve got kids and things are pretty tough right now with all what’s been going on,” Merrill said. “With all the prices going up and everything under the sun. It’s just not right.”
The highest median increase is in Monroe at 41% and the lowest is 25% in the little sliver of Sharonville that resides within the county. Fairfield and Middletown will have a median increase of 40% and in a dozen of the tax districts the hikes are 35% or more.
Nix has asked all of the tax bodies to hold the line on spending next year and to eschew the windfall the huge value the increases will bring to their coffers. She estimated if the county commissioners did not collect the increase, there would be a savings of roughly $40 per home, “but it is very dependent on the value of the home.”
Her office is still finalizing exact values — the commercial and industrial numbers have not been fully factored in yet — and they hope to have concrete numbers for the various taxing bodies in a few weeks, so their various governing boards can decide if they can forego the cash.
She said several of the finance people have called her office to discuss, and “They understand the severity of the problem.”
The county commissioners gave everyone a tax holiday last year, rolling back their inside millage, to the tune of $18.5 million, that saved about $67 per $100,000 in assessed value. Commissioners Cindy Carpenter and Don Dixon told the Journal-News they would consider giving the break Nix is suggesting. Commissioner T.C. Rogers told the Journal-News he is worried about setting a precedent.
“When we did that last year it was the first time it had ever been done in Butler County and I think probably one of the first times it ever happened in the state of Ohio,” Rogers said. “So talk about let’s do it again? I’m not ready to establish a habit.”
Middletown is going to be the hardest hit because it has the highest tax rates. Nix’s Real Estate Director Mike Stein said property tax bills there will increase 27% to 30%.
Middletown Councilman Zack Ferrell has expressed grave concern for his community, “Our citizens live paycheck to paycheck. This is the difference between Ramen noodles and a healthy dinner.”
However he said their finance department ran some numbers and the city’s slice of the tax bill is so small — the schools get the bulk of tax bills — he isn’t sure a tax break on their end would be the best option.
“It would bring in about $1 million to the city and it would be $5 to $6 a month for the city portion of the increase,” he said. “Do we waive that $5 to $6 month or do we hire for example 10 police officers that can actively go fight crime every single day. We’re not closed minded on giving a break, but at the same time this is our chance to really combat some of the largest issues in our city.”
Middletown City Schools collects the lion’s share of the taxes, and school board President Chris Urso told the Journal-News they just received numbers on this matter and are “just finding out what it all means.”
“We want to be great stewards to our community, we appreciate our taxpayers, we have beautiful buildings in our district that we are thankful for, we want to provide the best services to our young people,” Urso said. “We want to do that in a way that’s responsible, we don’t want to overburden families but at the same time we want to fully serve our students. There’s kind of a fine line.”
Hamilton Finance Director Dave Jones told the Journal-News the median 33% increase approved by the state will mean a $44 per $100,000 in assessed value increase for the city’s portion of the tax bill. City Manager Joshua Smith said “I know that a decision will have to be made before November, so at some point this fall it will be discussed on a City Council agenda.”
Nix said the sacrifice would be hardest on the townships because that is their main income source. The cities rely most heavily on income tax, and sales tax is the main revenue generator for the county general fund.
In Liberty Twp. the median increase is 38% on 14,592 parcels.
“Liberty does not need the money,” Trustee Steve Schramm said. “I would gladly give it back to our residents and not even bat an eyelash.”
When the average 42% increase was still a possibility, West Chester Twp. Finance Director Ken Keim calculated that total taxes on $100,000 of value would increase $147 for residents there. The state ordered a 39% hike which will cull an extra $780,000 to the general fund and $772,000 for roads and bridges for the township.
Trustee Mark Welch said it would not be a “hardship” for the township to forego the extra cash, but it won’t do anything to solve the problem that values are still increasing.
“I would vote for it,” Welch said. “But I do it cautiously because we’re just putting off what’s going to happen in the next year and we don’t know if there’s going to be additional taxation in the next year.”
Nix offered this idea to give the legislature time to implement a true fix to the property tax structure. Sen. George Lange and Rep. Thomas Hall and other local legislators tried but ultimately failed to amend the biennial budget to insert a “band-aid” solution, that would have halved the spike to around 24%.
Hall told the Journal-News they still believe they can get the temporary, three-year average mandate for calculating values passed this year. He said he is also working on legislation to freeze property taxes for the elderly who have lived in their homes for years.
He said he truly believes meaningful change is on the horizon, “we are not done, this is not the end, we have other proposals we’re looking at.”
“I’m pretty excited we finally have the attention of the legislature,” Hall said. “For years nobody has really wanted to touch this and now we’re talking about reforming the 20-mill floor for schools which hasn’t been talked about since it was enacted... I think we are going in the right direction.”
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