MANSFIELD — Richland County residents could see local governments implement budget cuts and service reductions if Ohioans vote to eliminate property taxes, a group of local mayors said during a panel discussion Wednesday.
While a committee to abolish property taxes statewide is working to gather enough signatures for a November vote, elected officials and publicly funded agencies are reckoning with what that might mean for the residents they serve.
Mayors from across Richland County weighed in on the matter Wednesday during the annual mayoral panel hosted by the Richland Area Chamber of Commerce.
Bellville Mayor Teri Brenkus said the village would lose around $700,000 per year if property taxes were eliminated.
She added that the village’s total operating budget is $3.3 million a year, including $1 million for the local police department.
“It would be a huge hit,” she said.
Some villages, cities would be harder hit than others
Lexington Mayor Robert Jarvis said the village was able to adjust its budget after Richland County commissioners approved a property tax relief measure in October. That measure reduced the village’s property tax revenue by about $18,000 annually.
But if property taxes are eliminated completely, Jarvis said government entities will have to come up with a different way of funding services.
“If all the property taxes go away, it’s going to have to come from other sources. The most sensible, I think, would be income tax,” Jarvis said.
“I don’t believe that everybody knows just how much those property taxes fund — a lot of different services here in our county. We would first work to budget around it and then look to fill the gap.”
Plymouth Mayor Cassaundra Fryman said she was optimistic, but also skeptical about what might happen if Ohioans approve the abolishment of property taxes.
“It really depends on what this state legislature decides to do, how much autonomy local governments will be given to address funding gaps,” she said. “I do have concerns. The Local Government Fund was taken and never fully restored back to municipalities.”
The Local Government Fund distributed state funding to local villages, cities, counties and townships to help cover operating costs. The rate was reduced from 3.68 percent of the state’s general fund to 1.7 percent in during the 2011 fiscal crisis, according to the Ohio Municipal League.
Butler Mayor Wesley Dingus said he “loves the idea” of eliminating property taxes, but said residents should expect taxes to increase elsewhere if it happens.
“We should be able to own our own land. Granted, we do need another funding mechanism,” he said. “Maybe we don’t pay property tax, but now sales tax is 20%.
“The money’s gonna be taken no matter what,” he added. “We’re not going to get to pocket it.”
Schools, fire departments would be impacted more than most towns
Ontario Mayor Joshua Bradley, who spent 24 years as a firefighter and paramedic, said he has “major concerns” about the proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution because of how it would impact emergency services.
He noted that Mansfield and Shelby are the only fire departments in the county not entirely reliant on property tax.
Lucas Mayor Todd Hall said his primary concern regarding the elimination of property tax is its impact on schools and fire departments.
“I understand why someone wants to not have to pay tax on the property that they own. I guess my question would be, ‘How is that going to be replenished when it comes to funding things such as local school systems?’” he said.
“(Lucas) is one of the smallest public school systems in the state of Ohio,” he added. “If the property tax goes away, what happens to that school system? Without that school system, what happens to Lucas’s identity?”
Mayor Jodie Perry of Mansfield said property taxes make up about $3 million of the city’s $40 million general fund.
“If they go away, we’ll make adjustments. I don’t know how I can do that without making some cuts to the city budget,” she said. “It’s not catastrophic to us, but it’s not great and it definitely doesn’t help us at a time when we’re already flat on income.”
Nevertheless, Perry said she shared Hall’s concerns about school funding.
“I definitely hear both sides of this. At the end of the day, the question is for you all. Because it seems like this may be something we’re all gonna vote on at the ballot box,” she said.
“What I would just encourage you to consider is to think about it very carefully, because it’s more than just your city or your village,” she added. “It’s your fire department, it’s your library. It’s Richland Newhope. It’s our schools.
“Nobody, to my knowledge, has had a great answer for, How are we going to fund our schools at the end of the day?”