By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
A Lake County resident went to the Board of Revisions to contest their new home valuation. Here is their experience with Auditro Chris Galloway’s appointment to the Board of Revision.
“(I am) Sharing my experience with the Lake County Board of Revision. I had my Board of Revision hearing yesterday. One member did almost all the talking, Mr. Andy Lingenfelter. Mr. Lingenfelter didn’t let me finish my sentences. He was rude and condescending.
I tried to present evidence showing the Auditor overvalued my house by over $100,000, used comps that aren’t comps to my house, AND disregarded the value determined by the Auditor’s own informal review process. But Mr. Lingenfelter didn’t want to hear any of it.
The other 2 Board of Revision members sat silent. Very condescendingly, Mr. Lingenfelter asked me if I am a real estate expert. Very condescendingly, Mr. Lingenfelter asked if I am a realtor. I told Mr. Lingenfelter that I am neither. I am a just a home owner being taxed out of my home by all of the governmental entities living off of my home, all in the name of those governmental entities saying they must tax our homes more and more each and every year into perpetuity or else they won’t be able to provide services.
Food for thought: The law in the United States of America is a person is innocent until proven guilty. This unfortunately doesn’t apply to home ownership. The government tells us how much our property is worth, and we the people must prove the government is wrong. I tried, and the Board of Revision won’t even listen to what I had to say. And we must pay, year after year, after year, forever, an ever-increasing amount or else the government will take our property, property we have worked all of our life for, property we have already paid for, most peoples’ largest asset, the American Dream.
This is not freedom. This is feudalism. We are merely serfs renting from the government. Please join the grassroots movement to ABOLISH property taxes in Ohio – sign the initiative petition, help collect signatures. Go to axohtax.com.
Editorial opinion by Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
Lake County paid an outside contractor $1.8 million to revalue the property in 2024. When we asked to see how they calculate the home values, we are told that is proprietary information.
So, a third party contractor controls the destiny of the Lake County citizens and is not accountable to those citizens. We call that taxation without representation, and the Boston Tea Party started because of taxation without representation.
Regardless of what the State legislators do, our mission is to get the Constitutional Amendment on the ballot in 2026 to Abolish Ohio Property Taxes. The State legislators have had decades to solve the problem, but have chosen to ignore the citizens of Ohio and placate their donor base. The people deserve to be heard.
We will no longer be merely renters from the government!
Categories: Community Activism, Lake, Real Estate Taxes, Uncategorized