This document provides highlights Russell L. Jackson Jr.'s proposed property tax-reduction plan. The plan, if enacted, would reduce by .859 mills the amount paid by property owners, resulting in an annual savings of $171.80 for the owner of a $200,000 home. Jackson has also challenged current commissioners to begin to enact cuts immediately.
Below are highlights of Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners candidate Russell L. Jackson Jr.'s proposed property tax-reduction plan, as unveiled at the February 2, 2004, COAST (Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes) meeting.. The plan, if enacted, would reduce by .859 mills the amount paid by property owners, resulting in an annual savings of $171.80 for the owner of a $200,000 home. Jackson has also challenged current commissioners to begin to enact cuts immediately.
- Inordinately high property taxes in Hamilton County seem to be the cause celebre of the current primary election cycle, with some perhaps misdirected finger-pointing fueling the debate. Up until now, the only serious proposal to ease the problem calls for the putting of all countywide special-purpose levies on the same ballot, a radical plan that has raised the hackles of numerous special-interest groups.
- Levy reform is not an indictment of social issues; it just makes good business sense. While the single-ballot initiative might not be the perfect solution, it is better than what we currently have in place. "Special," it is worth noting, is simply a disingenuous term for creative tax layering, where special-interest levies are strategically placed on ballots so as to not allow them to be weighed and evaluated by voters in comparison to one another. Further, their costs cannot be put in perspective with the operating expenses required to provide for basic county services.
- With this bundling concept, the Board of Commissioners must consider the implications of the possible failure of the three levies that fund state-mandated services (Mental Health, Children's Services and Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities) and plan to provide for their minimized requirements by reducing general-fund expenses in other areas.
- The "bundling" of special-purpose tax levies would be a long-term process. By not including the Museum Center debt service levy, which expires in 2009, and the Park District operating levy, which goes until 2017, the earliest target date for implementation could be three years from now, or 2007, as the current Senior Services and Mental Health levies both expire at that time. Those expiring this year, Drake Center and MR/DD, plus Children's Services and University/ Children's Health and Hospitalization Services, which expire in 2006, would need 2007 expiration dates.
- Russ Jackson believes that we can implement sorely-needed tax relief much sooner than that. Jackson's plan calls for property-tax relief within the year, if the current county commissioners are serious about taking action, or within two years if we have to wait until he is elected.
- To understand Jackson's plan, one must first understand that the voted tax rate on special-purpose levies does not determine how much tax is to be collected; it only establishes the maximum tax that can be collected. The Board of County Commissioners, through its annual tax budget, tells the auditor's office how much it needs to collect, up to the voted maximum tax rate. The Budget Commission's job is then essentially to certify that there will be adequate revenues collected to cover the budget.
- As was done in the City of Sharonville not too long ago, the county commissioners can reduce the special-purpose budgets in July and request that the auditor reduce the tax collection on the following January's tax duplicate.
- Jackson proposes that the county commissioners reduce by 5% the tax budgets of each of the special-purpose tax levies that do not expire this year, a reduction similar to that of the latest Zoo levy, and then approve for the November ballot replacement levies for Drake Center and MR/DD, which reflect no less than this same 5% reduction.
- Since these budgets will be for the calendar year 2005, the organizations affected would have adequate notice to plan for modest cutbacks and to adjust their operations without undue stress.
- Overall, Jackson's plan would result in a .859-mill reduction on next year's tax bill. It will save the owner of a $200,000 home $171.80 annually. More importantly, this will begin the critical process of reducing our county property taxes.
- If elected, Jackson will serve as a full-time commissioner, pledged to the implementation of his tax-reduction plan. He challenges the current Board of County Commissioners to get on board now, by putting taxpayer's money where their mouths are!
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