The county is undergoing another mandated reappraisal — the last time the values shot up an average 37% — and Nix said early indications are values could increase 13% to 25%, as of January 2026 to be paid the following year.
Some of the things of which to be aware:
- Properties are reappraised every six years and values are updated every third year
- The auditor’s office is in the process of the sexennial reappraisal when all 160,345 parcels are revalued
- Value increases don’t necessarily translate to equivalent tax hikes, and the 20-mill floor is the key culprit in the knotty property tax crisis
Nix estimates taxpayers in the Fairfield and Lakota schools “would only see a 2-to-10% increase in their taxes, but those in the other eight school districts would suffer another 3% to 17% increase in their taxes.”
“With the real estate inflation being so exacerbated this has resulted in windfalls for certain school districts at the 20-mill floor, one local school district from ‘22 to ‘23, their revenues went from $20 million to $26 million,” she said. “These windfalls are going the school districts because of the 20-mill floor and that is fact. People in school districts at the 20-mill floor, their taxes are up 25 to 50% in the last six years.”
Ohio law says once a school district’s total current expense millage is reduced to 20 mills, it cannot be reduced any further, so tax revenues grow as property values increase.
The market is ‘really hot’
The county treasurer’s office has billed taxpayers $712.8 million this year — including delinquencies — compared to $521.8 million charged in 2020, a 36.6% increase.
Property values have exploded post-pandemic — due to a host of factors — and Nix’s Chief Appraiser Mike Gildea told the Journal-News the market is still “really hot.”
“Butler County is probably one of the hottest markets in the state of Ohio,” he said. “Cumulative days on market was four to five, that’s pretty quick.”
The county undertook the triennial update in 2023 when the average value hike was 37%. Gildea explained the difference between the two appraisal processes.
“For the six-year reappraisal by state law we’re required to view every property in the county and we use aerial photography and that type of stuff,” he said. “So every six years we have to actually put our eyes on the property. At the triennial it’s just an in-house update where we use statistics and market trends to make adjustments to values.”
Nix said the reappraisal is about 50% complete and she will have a better idea of the true impact in October and final numbers in March.
Nix is not the final arbiter of value and ultimately tax hikes; there are a number of contributing factors:
- Taxpayers countywide will decide in November if they want to spend $25 more per $100,000 to continue supporting the Elderly Services levy
- There are also tax increase decisions for property owners in the Lakota Schools and Hanover, Milford and Ross townships
The state tax commissioner actually has the final say in the final value adjustments. Former county auditor Roger Reynolds fought and lost a historic war with the state over the 2020 reappraisal. He said values should only increase roughly 14% in the uncertain pandemic times and the state mandated an average 20% hike.
In a statement, former Ohio Tax Commissioner Jeffrey McClain’s office said Ohio law drove its decisions to call for “real property to be valued at its true value in money for the purposes of taxation.”
“While we understand Mr. Reynolds’ concerns about the impact of the pandemic on the economy, no information has been offered to demonstrate it has affected housing values,” the statement read.
Potential to ‘flip the script’
Nix will submit her final numbers to the state for approval next year but there is a bill in the state legislature that would give her the upper hand, if she and the tax commissioner disagree on the numbers.
The “Flip the Script” bill, co-sponsored by former Ashtabula County auditor Rep. David Thomas — who was tagged by Republican leadership to steer property tax reform — and Butler County Rep. Thomas Hall, passed the House unanimously June 4.
Thomas told the Journal-News if the Senate passes the bill and the governor signs it when the legislature returns this fall, it will make a difference because “it puts county auditors in charge of the sales used to determine valuation modifications and puts the burden to challenge sales on the Department of Taxation, rather than the other way around, providing for more accurate data and sales figures.”
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