By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
We have written several articles about the loss of checks and balances with the collection of excessive property taxes by Lake County taxing authorities. There is a Budget Commission, comprised of the Auditor, Treasurer and Prosecutor, that has the distinct role of guarding against excessive property taxes.
Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, the Budget Commission has merely been a rubber stamp for the taxing authorities for many, many years, and NO ONE at the State or local level has done anything about it. This has resulted in many taxing authorities collecting millions of dollars in their surplus cash account, and they are accountable to NO ONE. Deepwood has $65 million in cash reserves, Metroparks $30 million, Crime Lab $7 million, and the County has over $100 million. School districts, without a vote of the taxpayers, will receive massive increases in their property tax revenue in 2025 due to the mandatory sexennial revaluation in 2024 that will increase property values in 2024 by an estimated 30%.
In my opinion, local government and their non-profits are out-growing the private sector’s ability to pay for their services. They are “sucking the life-blood” out of the community and NO ONE ever thinks of returning money back to the taxpayers.
The funds only go one way:
FROM TAXPAYER —–> TAXING AUTHORITIES
If you want to understand why we say that the Budget Commission is a “rubber stamp” for the taxing authorities, here is a recent video that we recorded of the Budget Commission reviewing the current tax budgets submitted by some taxing authorities.
At the request of Auditor Chris Galloway, who recognizes the Commission’s problems, we have started to collect signatures for a petition to try to change the makeup of the Budget Commission.
“Shall the County Budget Commission consist of two additional members to be elected from this County?”
We need 2,838 signatures of registered Lake County voters by August 7th at 4:00 pm. This is a non-partisan issue.
Following the directives of the Lake County Board of Elections, we must ask voters to first add the two seats to the Budget Commission. If we get the required, valid signatures, the issue will be added to the ballot in November 2024. If a majority of voters approve it, it will pass.
Again following the directives of the Lake County Board of Elections, any citizen interested in filing for the positions will file with the Board of Elections, and in the following election in 2025, voters will elect the new Budget Commission members.
To obtain the required number of signatures, we have decided to rent a booth, at our own personal cost, at the Lake County Fair.
July 23- 28, 2024
1301 Mentor Avenue
Painesville Township, Ohio
We will have a booth somewhere in the Fair’s midway. We intend to have someone in the booth every day of the fair. Come and talk with Sheila Leksan and Leonard Gilbert about our citizens’ initiative and the increasing property taxes in Lake County.
If you are interested in helping us collect signatures, please send your contact information to: stoppropertytaxes@gmail.com.
If you want to help us defray the costs, please send checks to Lobbyists for Citizens, 8196 Rainbow Drive, Concord Township, Ohio 44077. Thank you.
Categories: Community Activism, Lake County - General, Uncategorized