The township could capture new valuation if it went for a replacement levy, but if the expiring levy is disturbed, taxpayers would lose their state-paid Homestead Exemption tax rollbacks.
RELATED: Ross Twp. passed a levy in November, and these hirings are the first result
“We’ve stayed within our budget, we ran the department wisely, we did the things we wanted to do, we hired the full-time people, we’re providing the 24/7 coverage in two stations,” Willsey said previously. “We’re doing all the things that we do and we don’t feel the loss of the Homestead exemption tax is worth the difference. It would put a big burden on our people.”
Trustee Ellen Yordy agreed.
“We will keep the millage the same and work within that amount,” she said. “The people of Ross have been taxed enough.”
Mike Stein, the tax accounting manager in the Butler County auditor’s office, said the average home in Ross is valued at about $192,000, so average annual cost of the 2.75 mill renewal tax is $147.
Township Administrator Bob Bass said the 2.75 mill levy was voter-approved in 2014 as an additional levy so the township could increase staffing to counter the part-time firefighter shortage and expand coverage.
Bass said the township has another 3-mill levy that will also expire in a couple of years. That levy generates $536,270. He said when that happens the trustees might consider consolidating the two levies to “make it easier on the voter.”
He said the trustees have had “minor” discussions on a consolidated levy and making it permanent. He said he doesn’t like to say the department would “go away” if the levy fails, but it is the truth. He said former Gov. John Kasich’s decreases to local government funds have led to police and fire levies.
“What Kasich did to the local governments makes it so our general fund can’t fund, can’t support the operations of their departments anymore,” Bass said. “The general fund has to be there to support road repairs and administrative costs, so each department has to become self sufficient and part of that self sufficiency is levies. Each one of those levies becomes an every five-year adventure into what happens if this fails.”
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