The times they have a-changed. And some folks in these here parts are howling-mad upset about it.
They say nothing is certain but death and taxes. For Lucas County property owners who haven’t died yet, yer stuck with just the taxes.
Which have ballooned throughout the swamp.
Aghast, the people have raised hue and cry. Foul, they bellow! Out you brute, they wail at County Auditor Katie Moline!
But seriously, folks, what’s the dealio behind the scenes?
A Lo, again
Let’s start with this. By law, all properties county-wide have their values adjusted by the Auditor’s office every six years, plus interim revaluations every three.
Lo and behold, twenty twenty four was the lucky year.
Anyone with any knowledge about real estate can tell you most properties are worth significantly more today than they were six years ago. So increased valuation should come as no surprise. But there’s more to the story.
Former Auditor Anita Lopez aggressively encouraged property owners t challenge their property valuations by every means available. This made her wildly popular, while also artificially depressing taxed values. And depriving
entities that rely on taxes for needed revenue.
A Lo is a consummate politician. She knew those tactics would win votes. And that the fallout wouldn’t splatter un- til the twenty twenty four reval. Before that happened, A Lo shrewdly jumped ship from the Auditor’s office and be- came a county commissioner.
Enter her replacement, Certified Public Accountant Katie Moline, to do the dirty work of revaluation. Moline is a fiscal responsibility type with a passion for public service, but she’s not as politically savvy as her predecessor. The A Lo house of cards inevitably crashed on Katie’s head.
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The new valuations, required by law, blindsided most county property owners. Especially those which were blatantly inaccurate due to a computer glitch. But even the true blue ones reflected dramatic increases.
Which is probably legit. While most property values (in Lucas County and across the country) have increased organically, the A Lo assisted artificial depression of Lucas County values has been removed. Add that together and,
well, here we are.
Pay the piper
Then there’s the tax liability on the increased values.
Apparently many taxpayers missed the fact that there were multiple tax issues on the November ballot. They shoulda read the City Paper, which warned them last year before the election, but anyhoo.
Many of these ballot issues were new taxes or replacements, meaning additional money based on the new valuations. Some were large millage.
Nearly every single one of them passed at the ballot box. Increased valuation plus new tax millage on that higher valuation and, well, here we are again.
One last wrinkle. Moline says even these higher tax bills are actually a bit too low. That’s because the assessment for the Toledo Area Sanitary District was off, and the difference will be added to the next bill.
You might wonder why you pay for the Toledo Area Sanitary District… Because it’s mandated by state law, that’s why. It pays for those midnight mosquito spray trucks that pound the pavement all summer.
Get ready to dig a little deeper into your wallets when that skeeter tax hits in July.
And don’t say you weren’t warned.
