January 25, 2000
Auditor spends time fielding taxpayer questions
By Erik Burriss
Staff Writer
Seneca County Auditor's Office employees spent a large chunk of time Monday dealing with citizens concerned with an increase in their real estate taxes.
Auditor Larry Beidelschies said about 100 people called or came to the courthouse Monday to discuss their taxes.
Beidelschies said residential property values have increased by about 30 percent across the county, while the property values of farms increased by about 38 percent.
However, "some pockets went up more than others," he said. "Taxes are then based, basically, on voted issues by the majority of the individuals in that taxing area."
"The valuations have gone up" Beidelschies said. "That brings the taxes up."
Properties are reevaluated for tax purposes every six years and the values are set by the sale price of property, the auditor said.
"There has been an increase in sales," Beidelschies said, and more households have two full-time incomes enabling them to pay more for a home.
"I hear 'We overpaid for the property, but we wanted it and now could afford it,'" Beidelschies said. "Unfortunately, these sales are setting the valuations of other properties."
Agricultural land is valued using the Current Land-Use Valuation -- set by the Ohio Bureau of Taxation -- which has increased even though commodity prices have fallen, he said. The CLUV is based on crop prices, production costs and land prices over a five-year period, this one from 1994 to 1998, he said.
"Ohio's (agricultural) land prices are no longer set as a Midwestern state," the auditor said, "but is based on eastern states' development."