Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Ottawa County property owners will see a little relief on their tax bill.
The county commissioners have approved a resolution requesting that the county budget commission temporarily reduce the county’s portion of property taxes from 2 mills to 1.5 mills.
The reduction will be in effect for the 2024 property taxes collected in 2025.
The county commissioners, Mark Stahl, Donald Douglas, and Mark Coppeler, in a recent meeting unanimously approved the resolution after having discussions about the rise in property valuations and the subsequent increase in taxes with members of the county’s budget commission.
Prosecutor James VanEerten, auditor Jennifer Widmer, and treasurer Anthony Hatmaker comprise the budget commission and agreed with the county commissioners.
Members of the commission and the county commissioners estimate the increase in property valuations would amount to an increase of about $1.5 million in revenue for the county’s general fund from higher taxes.
Other tax liabilities, such as school levies, ditch assessments, and other levies in political jurisdictions are not subject to oversight by the county commissioners and will still be collected at the millage levels they have been.
In 2023, property tax collections from the inside 2 mills in the county reached a little more than $4 million, according to the county’s annual report.
Without the action taken by the county commissioners to reduce that millage, the dollars generated by the 2 mills would have increased by approximately $1.5 million for tax year 2024 (collected in 2025), Hatmaker said.
“The county commissioners through their action are keeping the actual dollars collected from their share of the inside millage at approximately the same dollar amount that was collected for tax year 2023 (collected in 2024),” he said.
