Tornadoes take $81M toll on property values

Some communities, schools lost nearly $3M in tax revenues.

Though property values across Montgomery County climbed during a 2020 reappraisal, new data show some cities and townships hit hard by 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes and school districts in those areas could have together banked nearly $3 million more in tax revenue without storm losses.

After an exhaustive accounting of storm damage, the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office pegs the total value lost on 2,640 tornado-damaged homes and businesses at $81.44 million. An additional $35.18 million in losses was picked up after a first review of properties turned up a value

decrease of $46.26 million last November.

A natural disaster affects tax revenues differently than a broader market change, said Montgomery County Auditor Karl Keith.

“These homes were destroyed,” Keith said. “That revenue’s just lost. It doesn’t get redistributed to other property owners or reas- sessed in some other way.”

Of the $2.96 million in tax revenue wiped away by tornado losses, more than half – $1.57 million – would have gone to school districts, including $517 mil- lion for Dayton schools and $512,000 for Trotwood-Mad- ison schools.

Harrison Twp. and Trot- wood lost a combined $540,000 in tax revenue on 1,715 properties.

“This is a real loss for them, and it’s unfortunate,” Keith said. “But then on the other hand, you can’t tax someone on a piece of prop- erty that’s been destroyed or significantly damaged. It’s not fair to continue to charge taxes on a property that just isn’t there.”

The results of a 2020 countywide reappraisal released last week show property values climbed $1.8 billion. Not yet factored in is new construction, which will get added to the coun- ty’s rolls yet this year, along with other revenue like taxes on the value of public utilities that may help mitigate the tornado losses for the entities, Keith said.

“Some of these numbers that we’re seeing won’t actu- ally net that much to those jurisdictions,” he said. “But this is a loss. This was revenue that would have been there had there not been a tornado.”

The county’s human ser- vices levy could have collected $380,000 more had the tornadoes not hit. Sinclair Community College, the Dayton Metro Library, Five Rivers MetroParks and others that rely on tax levy revenue were also impacted.

About $1.7 million of the lost revenue would have gone to the entities this year based on 2019 adjustments, while another nearly $1.3 million would show up in the cof- fers next year resulting from losses not identified until this year, according to the auditor’s office.

Keith said appraisers are back in the field after work was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. They are currently reviewing about 9,000 newly constructed or renovated homes countywide, including those in tornado damaged areas, Keith said.

How much the new con- struction and other taxes will affect the amount of revenue collected by the cities, townships, school districts and others won’t be deter- mined until later this year, Keith said.

Property owners who sustained tornado damage can file a complaint with the Board of Revision until Aug. 23 to see if they are eligible for a partial refund on this year’s taxes. About 1,200 property owners have already received relief, and about 200 new applications are being reviewed. But any new refunds will have a negligible impact on the revenue going to jurisdictions and school districts, Keith said.

“It doesn’t have a dramatic or significant impact for the community or for the county as a whole, but it does for the individual property owner,” he said.