
The highest reduction request was nearly $8 million from the Holiday Inn on Muhlhauser Road in West Chester Twp., the property is currently valued at $13.8 million according to the application. Reynolds’ office received 20 other value challenges totaling $43.3 million based on the pandemic’s impact. Liberty Center owners have also asked for an additional $60 million reduction, based on a new state law that allows reduced values due to the negative impact of the pandemic. The BOR agreed to a $14 million Liberty Center value reduction last month, after it contested the 2020 reevaluation, bringing the value of the retail portion of the development down to $124 million. Reynolds received 773 applications to challenge property values to the Board of Revision, including Liberty Center owners asking to drop the value $58 million. at 32%, and the lowest was 10.1% in Morgan Twp. A value increase does not automatically mean higher taxes for all. This was due in part to the reassessment but there were also some levies passed last year and other moves made to take advantage of the value hike. The county collected $564 million in property taxes this year which is $42.3 million more than last year. “We see potentially that we could adjust on the bill that goes out in 2022, but there’s a lot between now and then, because as far as we know it’s unprecedented.” Since the tax appeal was in place Reynolds was able to keep the values he set intact, so if they are successful nothing will change.Ĭommissioner Don Dixon asked if interim tax bills will be required if they lose the appeal. Reynolds told the county commissioners during his budget hearing this week regardless of the outcome, taxpayers likely won’t see a value change this year. “But I think we presented a good solid argument and good solid case today.” “It’s still going to take some time before this plays out,” Ferguson said. When asked about the hearing and how many challenges by county auditors have been accepted, Gary Gudmundson, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Taxation, said he could not comment because “the matter is effectively still being litigated.”įerguson said he was “pleased” with how the hearing went and the hearing officer for the board has asked for more briefs on the issue.

Reynolds is appealing the values for Fairfield, Hamilton and Fairfield and West Chester townships, the tax commissioner didn’t quibble with his values for the remainder of the county. “But that’s not what the legislature dictated the tax commissioner to do, they said use three years, didn’t say use the most recent year or weight it to the most recent year.” Explore Butler County agrees to $14 million property value drop for Liberty Center Standard appraisal practices has you look at the most recent samples to determine a value, we don’t dispute that,” Ferguson told the Journal-News. Reynolds and Chief Assistant Prosecutor Dan Ferguson traveled to Columbus to make their case to the Board of Tax Appeals that the tax commissioner’s office should have weighed values from all three years since the last reevaluation, and not emphasized 2019.
