ALLEN COUNTY — Three local school districts dealt with tax issues in their respective school districts at board meetings Tuesday night.
The Shawnee Board of Education was tasked with agreeing to tax incentives for a business that wishes to develop in the Shawnee Locals Schools district. The Allen County Economic Development Group intends to provide Pegasus Specialty Vehicles, LLC with incentives for the construction of a 215,000+ square foot facility with an estimated value of $21M – 29.5M to be used for manufacturing school buses, shuttle buses and EV trucks.
The proposal was to grant a tax exemption for construction of real property and for certain personal property of the company for 95 percent of the taxable value of the improvements for a period of 10 years. The Shawnee Board of Education supported employment opportunities for residents of the community and having reviewed the proposed exemption and the Enterprise Zone Agreement has determined to approve the Enterprise Zone Agreement and the Exemption.
The Bath school board voted to allow the voters to decide on May 2, 2023, if an emergency tax levy should be put in effect. The levy, if passed, will be placed on the 2023 tax list for collection in 2024.
The amount of revenue raised in the Bath District by all tax levies that this district is authorized to impose, when combined with all revenues to be received from the State of Ohio and the federal government, will be insufficient to provide for the necessary requirements of the Bath Local Schools. If the levy is passed, the remaining monies from the 2018 levy will not be collected. They are substituting one levy for another.
In 2018 Bath voters approved an emergency levy that generated $3,725, 182 per year for the emergency needs of the school. The levy was placed on the tax list and first collected in 2020.
An emergency levy is a “fixed sum” levy. This fixed sum levy will raise $3.725,182 for the Bath District each year. This levy will not increase the tax bill as the appraisal on your home and business increases; it is a “set” amount.
Elida also is putting a levy to the voters on May 2, 2023. Elida is asking for a renewal levy which will generate $369,000 annually for permanent improvements. The levy would cost $26 for every $100,000 of appraised property. The levy would be for five years beginning in 2023 and collected in 2024.
A renewal levy is voter-approved to extend the term and purpose of an expiring levy while considering original property valuations at the time of passage. Renewal mills have a reduction factor annually applied in order to raise the same amount of funding as in the original year of passage. Ohio law allows districts to ask voters to renew a limited levy when it expires. The levy must be for the same purpose and is renewed at the effective millage rate.
House Bill 920 reduces the taxes charged by a voted levy to offset increases in the value of real property. This is called the property tax reduction factor. This means the amount of outside millage taxes collected on property will not exceed the amount collected at the property’s value in the first year the taxes were collected. Although property values may increase while the levy is in effect, the amount of taxes collected on those properties do not increase. The reduced rate at which taxes are collected is termed the “effective” millage.
Reach Dean Brown at 567-242-0409
