AMERICAN GIRL
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Your Community newspaper serving Colerain Township, Green Township, Groesbeck, Monfort Heights, Pleasant Run, Seven Hills, White Oak E-mail: northwestpress@communitypress.com We d n e s d a y, J u n e 2 3 , 2 0 1 0
Mollie Bigner, 7 of White Oak, with her doll at McAuley High School’s American Girl Camp
jkey@communitypress.com
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Duke to withhold millions in tax payments By Jennie Key
Volume 93 Number 20 © 2010 The Community Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRESS
Beginning this month, Duke Energy of Ohio will withhold millions of dollars in tax payments during an appeal of its personal property valuation. The loss of revenue has local school districts scrambling. A group of treasurers from school districts across Hamilton County say they stand to lose more than $15 million from their already strapped budgets. Representatives from Duke Energy Ohio began meeting with school district officials last week to notify them Duke’s tax payment will drop by 40 percent beginning with the payment due at the end of June. Duke filed an appeal of its personal property valuation with the Ohio Tax Commission in December 2009. The state has phased out personal property taxes for most businesses, but utilities still pay them. Duke pays personal property taxes on all of its property including transformers, poles, meters, substations and transition lines. Pat Hoffmann, regional communications director for Duke Energy
Ohio, says that at the heart of its appeal is the way the value of personal property is assessed. “The state uses an assessment that we feel Bertram overvalues our property,” she said. Hoffmann says the state bases property values on historic costs of the property minus depreciation. She says Duke wants the state to look at fair market values and what a buyer might pay if the company was for sale, taking into account its net operating income. Hoffmann said Duke paid taxes during the first half of the year based on the state’s assessed value while the company tried to negotiate a settlement. But there was no settlement and the company has decided to pay taxes on what it believes is a fair value as the appeal goes forward. “We understand paying property taxes is part of the cost of doing business, and we gladly pay our fair share,” she said. “But we can’t pay more than our fair share.” That translates to lost revenue for local schools. Northwest Local
Townships also hit
Local townships will also lose revenue because Duke Energy Ohio is withholding payments during its appeal of its personal property valuation. Duke has not notified townships of its appeal, so many local officials are just learning of the pending reduction. Colerain Township administrator David Foglesong said he hasn’t had any contact from Duke and he’s trying to assess the effect the reduction will have on his community. Duke Energy Ohio serves the southwest Ohio area and includes Prebble, Montgomery, Butler, Warren, Clinton, Highland, Hamilton, Clermont, Brown and Adams counties. School District Treasurer Randy Bertram says Northwest takes a big hit: $360,000 for the rest of this year, and $720,000 annually. And Northwest is not alone. All local school districts will lose money. Mount Healthy Superintendent David Horine says it is bad news for his district. “We will lose $332,000 in taxes this fiscal year,” he said. “This is devastating as we work on our numbers for a levy in November. This is nearly an extra mill that we will need to ask for.” (See related story below) He said Mount Healthy is also paying an additional $250,000 annually for services formerly provided at the expense of Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities. “In effect, we will be losing
nearly $600,000 on an annual basis,” Horine said. “With all the cuts and budget reductions we have already put into place, I am unsure at this point how we will resolve this situation.” Duke is hopeful for a scheduled appeal hearing in late summer or early fall 2010. Bertram said the Hamilton County school treasurers, the Ohio Association of School Business Official and board attorneys will band together to fight the evaluation appeal by Duke. “This reduction comes at a point when districts have been making significant expenditure cuts – Northwest started in 2006,” he said. “In some cases districts will have to make additional cuts and ask taxpayers to invest more to balance the budgets.”
Final report
Colerain Township Fire Capt. Steve Conn discusses the final investigation report and findings in deaths of the Capt. Robin Broxterman and Firefighter Brian Schira. Full story A7.
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Mt. Healthy schools plan levy request By Jennie Key jkey@communitypress.com
Mount Healthy City School District Board of Education will begin discussions next month for a November tax levy request. The board is expected to discuss why an operating levy is needed at its next regular meeting, set for 5 p.m. Monday, July 19, at the board offices, 7615 Harrison Ave. Superintendent David Horine said he will likely ask the board to pass the first of two resolutions needed to put the levy on the ballot at that meeting. It’s been seven years since the district has asked voters for new
o p e r a t i n g money. The superintendent said the board told voters in 2003 the district would make the money last for three years. Horine “With reductions, stimulus money and decreased health care costs, we have been able to really stretch that levy,” Horine said. “And our teachers have had meager or no raises through that period.” He said the district’s request could be in the 8-mill range. Horine told the board members they will have to move faster than
they are used to, because the calendar for putting levies on the ballot has been pushed up. House Bill 48, which becomes effective July 2, changes the filing deadline for levy resolutions and now requires that levies be filed with the board of elections 90 days before the election instead of 75. That moves the deadline for a resolution for the November ballot to Aug. 4. State Rep. Louis Blessing Jr. (R – 29th District) said the bill’s purpose was to give boards of election across the state ample time to meet additional state requirements before elections. He said there was no objection from local govern-
ment or schools when the bill was in committee. The school board must pass two resolutions to place an issue on the ballot. One is a preliminary resolution asking the auditor to calculate millage based on the school district’s total real property valuation. The auditor is to respond within 10 days, and only after receiving the auditor’s response can the board pass its final resolution. Horine said he expects the first resolution to be passed at the July 19 meeting and a special meeting will likely be set to pass the second to meet the Aug. 4 deadline to submit the issue to the Hamilton County Board of Elections.
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