MiddletownJournal.com

HAMILTON — The Ohio Department of Taxation has extended the deadline for Butler County's contentious real estate reappraisal after a county commissioner says the county auditor nearly missed a step prescribed in state law.

That step requires county Auditor Roger Reynolds to submit his assessments to the county Board of Revision — consisting of Reynolds, the county commission president and the county treasurer — before final state approval.

Now the Board of Revision will get a stab next week at lowering appraised values, which some have assailed as too high in drafts of the countywide reappraisal completed earlier this year.

The board will be able to look at areas hit particularly hard by a capsized housing market and direct the auditor to lower values in those pockets, if there is sales data to support it, officials said.

Commissioner Donald Dixon sounded the alarm last week that the county Board of Revision had not reviewed the appraisal, which the law says should happen in June. "Apparently, no one knew (the law) existed," Dixon said.

Dixon and county Treasurer Nancy Nix said they previously were unaware of any plan to put the appraisal before the Board of Revision. And memories are mixed on whether this has been done in the past.

"In my office, they don't remember ever doing anything like that," Nix said.

"Throughout the entire process, it has been my intention to follow the letter of the law," Reynolds said when asked if he had planned this last-minute step all along.

The June deadline is only a guideline, but the review is a requirement, according to Shelley Wilson, head of the Ohio Department of Taxation's Equalization Division.

Wilson said the county now has until Dec. 15 to finish the reappraisal. If they push the deadline back further, it could delay tax collection by local school districts.

Has the law about reappraisals always been followed? County officials say it will be this year

It's a little-thought-of requirement in Ohio's laws governing property value reappraisal; two paragraphs written and passed into law in November 1965.

But it's still the law, and officials say it's unclear whether it always is followed.

The law requires that, on the second Monday of June every year, "the county auditor shall lay before the county board of revision the returns of his assessment of real property for the current year, and such board shall forthwith proceed to revise the assessment and returns of such real property."

"It turns out that no one at the county level can ever remember a county auditor following this section of the law," said Butler County Commissioner Donald Dixon on Friday, Dec. 5.

This law will be followed this year when the Butler County Board of Revision meets next week, county officials said.

Roger Reynolds, Butler County auditor, would not say whether he was aware of the rule before Dixon brought it up, but said he had every intention of following the law.

Reynolds took office in April, replacing former auditor Kay Rogers after she pleaded guilty to bank fraud.

Rogers said she recalls fulfilling this requirement when she was auditor. "I believe we always did take it in there, because the treasurer and commissioners all have to be part of it," she said.

The Board of Revision consists of the auditor, the treasurer and the county commission president.

Randy Groves, who served as Rogers' chief deputy auditor, said he doesn't recall whether the rule was followed.

Ohio Department of Taxation officials said the Board of Revision doesn't have to vote on appraisals, and doesn't have to meet in June, but the board has to review them before they're final. A cover sheet required when all final appraisals are submitted to the state attests that the Board of Revision has "completed its work."

But it's "extremely rare" for a board to revise an appraisal like Butler County is planning, said Shelley Wilson, head of the Ohio Department of Taxation's Equalization Division.

Doug Green, Brown County auditor and incoming president of the County Auditors' Association of Ohio, said the Board of Revision only reviews appraisals in his county for clerical errors.

"In my county, and I would think in most counties, once that value is established ... the ultimate responsibility of the appraisal process is with the assessor, which is the county auditor," Green said.

Dusty Rhodes, auditor in neighboring Hamilton County, said he's never heard of the Board of Revision being required to approve an appraisal.

"In all the years I've been here, that's never happened," he said.

He is finishing a triannual update this year, and doesn't care for the idea of the Board of Revision looking over his shoulder.

"After everybody has done all the work and the professionals have gone out ... then here comes Johnny commissioner, who's going to decide what's right or wrong? Give me a break," he said. "The very idea that the commissioners are going to micromanage an appraisal is ridiculous."

C

ontact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or jsweigart@coxohio.com.