Until votes are cast regarding a bill affecting property values, Union County officials said they can’t say for certain when tax bills will go out.
At the regular monthly meeting of county officials Tuesday, Auditor Andrea Weaver said that this year, sending out bills might have “some wrinkles” and could lead to a delay.
The Ohio House passed House Bill 187, which adjusts how property values are calculated, in October. It then went on to the Senate where it currently sits.
With changes to the legislation on the table, the state tax commissioner has yet to approve values, which affects when bills will be sent out.
“(The state) won’t send back finished rates until after this legislation either goes or doesn’t go,” she said. “There are no promises that we’ll have taxes due on the website before the end of the year.”
In a normal year, Weaver said, numbers would be approved by the last week of December. That may not be the case this year, she said.
HB 187, also tilted Ohio Homeowners Relief Act, was proposed as a way to mitigate the sizable increases in property taxes in recent years and require the state to work with local elected officials by weighing the past three years of a county’s property values instead of one year in order to determine property tax.
Union County saw a more than 23% increase to residential parcels last year and some counties have seen increases in the 40% range.
Weaver said if the current version of HB 187 passes in its current form, it would disrupt the process and taxes would not go out in January.
“There would be no collection probably until June. It is a very bad case scenario,” Weaver said. “The good side of that is, I don’t think this legislation is going to pass in its current form. The Senate really doesn’t like it and they are putting forward an alternative which is to improve the Homestead exemption and pretty much do away with the verbiage that’s in the current bill.”
The Senate’s plan would replace the existing legislation and include those homestead exemption changes, which provide a reduction in property taxes to seniors that qualify. The measure considers inflation and if passed this month, would then go to the House for consideration.
People likely won’t know what they owe on their bills until the first or second week of January, Weaver said. That still gives residents time to pay as taxes aren’t due until the middle of February.
Weaver said the process slightly complicates things in her office mainly in dealing with school districts.
“It affects us only in that I have three cross-over school districts, which means that the home district is in another county,” she said. “For example, Fairbanks has residents that live in Madison County, that are in that school district and so we have to wait in order to certify tax rates for their values.”
Schools can’t send tax information until the state tax commissioner approves it and that won’t happen until there’s a decision, either by a vote on current HB 187 or the newly proposed measure by the Senate.
As is typical this time of year, Treasurer Andrew Smarra said his office has received calls from residents asking about the bills. He said regardless of the congressional votes, residents looking to pay taxes early still can do that in the meantime.
“They can always pay what they paid last year and it’s deductible in the year paid because the liability exists, we just don’t know what it is at this point in time,” he said. “They may have a small balance or a small overpayment going forward.”