By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
Well, the November election have started and you know what that means. Yes, more property tax levies on the ballot. We received the ballot language for all of the property tax levies from the Lake County Board of Elections, and thought we would provide a service to the community by giving the details so that voters can make better decisions on the levies.
There are eight property tax levies on the ballot, and a citizen will get to vote on those in their taxing district. Your property tax bill will provide you with your taxing district. If you never see your property tax bill (over 40% of Lake County voters are never sent their bill because it goes to their mortgage company), you can find it on the Lake County Auditor’s website.
We will provide the details on different levies on separate articles so that a reader can go to the article that impacts them.
Look for articles on Willoughby Hills City, Lake Metroparks, Willowick City (2 levies), Eastlake, Fairport Village, Leroy Township, Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library.
Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library
Ballot language:
“A renewal of a tax for the benefit of Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library for the purpose of current expenses that the county auditor estimates will collect $3,444,696 annually, at a rate not exceeding 2 mills for each $1 of taxable value, which amounts to $41 for each $100,000 of the county auditor’s appraised value, for 7 years, commencing in 2026, first due in calendar year 2027.”
Schedule A from the Lake County Auditor shows all of the current tax levies for the Willoughby-Eastlake Library…Taxing Districts 26, 27,28,30,31,33,34
Here are the taxing districts that pay into the Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library:
Here the details of the tax to be collected in a, hopefully, understandable, format. The auditor’s office explained the difference between the 1.0 mill levy on their Schedule A and the 2 mill levy on the ballot language as follows:
“They are passing a 2 mill levy but because at one point it was renewal with an increase, the original one mill is collecting at one rate and the other mill is collecting at a different rate.”
Here is our worksheet showing the cost to residential homeowners per $100,000 of appraised value.
Categories: Community Activism, Real Estate Taxes