Property taxes rising faster than inflation

Some Franklin County residents pointed to their rising property taxes as a reason they voted against the Columbus Zoo levy this month.

Depending on where they live, their taxes probably have gone up.

A Dispatch analysis of property taxes in Franklin County over the past 10 years found that tax rates increased faster than inflation for homeowners in most areas of the county. Increases of 12 to 24 percent were common.

After accounting for inflation, tax rates in the sections of Columbus that fund Columbus

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City Schools — the largest tax district in the county — rose 16 percent. In some parts of the Hilliard school district, property-tax rates went up 36 percent. Increases in other places were much closer to the inflation rate, including Upper Arlington, where taxes were almost flat.

In the surrounding-county seats, taxes also outpaced inflation. Most of them saw property-tax rates increase 5 percent over the decade, with Delaware’s rates rising 22 percent.

In a few areas, tax rates didn’t keep up with inflation, meaning that the residents are providing less property-tax money than they were in 2004. Because taxes are paid in arrears, the 2003 rate is what property owners paid in 2004.

Changing property values or failed tax levies could explain the dips, said Bill LaFayette, the owner of Regionomics, a Columbus-based economic consulting firm.

“Sometimes it goes well, and sometimes it doesn’t,” LaFayette said about levy campaigns. “The real duty of anybody asking for tax money is to present a compelling argument as to why they need it.”

Franklin County Children Services might shave $400,000 off its levy request for November, leaders said last week, in part because of the voter response to other levies, such as the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium’s tax hike that 70 percent of voters rejected in the May primary election.

The city of Bexley had an inflation-adjusted decrease in residential property taxes of 19 percent, the biggest drop in the county. Census Bureau data show that, after inflation, the median income in Bexley is about the same as it was in 2000.

But that’s not to say that Bexley residents’ tax burden is any lower today. More than half of Bexley City Schools’ $34 million in revenue comes from property taxes. The district also gets money from a 0.75 percent income tax that voters approved in 2004, said Chris Essman, the district’s treasurer.

“The people who pay the income tax are the same people that pay the property tax,” Essman said.

Bexley is 95 percent residential. When a property-tax levy for the schools lost in 2003, the district proposed the income tax, which provided $7 million in revenue this year.

“While our property tax didn’t go up, our income tax did,” Essman noted.

In Upper Arlington, propertytax rates increased at almost the same rate as inflation. The city’s median household income also has remained flat since 2000.

These numbers might look good on paper, but residents are still feeling the pinch, said Dan McCormick, spokesman for Citizens for Responsible Taxation and a resident of Upper Arlington.

“There’s definitely a disconnect between what’s being asked for and what’s going on out in the real world, as we call it,” McCormick said. “People are living on tighter and tighter incomes.”

The legislature’s decision to stop having the state pay 12.5 percent of each homeowner’s property tax from new levies will increase the tax burden of future levies, noted LaFayette, the economist.

“All of a sudden, the cost of a new levy is more for the same millage than it was before,” said LaFayette, a resident of Columbus. “For levies that change any terms at all, the cost will increase.”

Hilliard is one place where homeowners are feeling the pressure from income and tax trends.

Depending on where a taxpayer lives in the Hilliard school district, the property-tax rate has increased between 11 and 36 percent since 2003. In addition, Hilliard’s median household income has decreased by almost 10 percent since 2000, according to the Census Bureau.

Unlike Bexley, Hilliard chooses to use the property tax as its main school-funding mechanism, said district Treasurer Brian Wilson. “For our district, about 25 percent of property tax is paid by the business community, whereas if you just have an income tax,” residents bear more of the burden.

Regardless, property taxes are just one part of the taxation whole for Franklin County residents, said McCormick, the Upper Arlington tax foe.

“I think people are becoming more aware of their total tax burden and not breaking it down into compartments,” he said. “We don’t have a zoo pocket in our wallet. We don’t have a school folder in our wallet. It’s all one wallet. It’s all coming from the same place.”