Auditor clarifies column about racism, property values
The response to my Aug. 2 column by Glennon Sweeney and Michael Outrich of the Kirwan Institute about their study alleging racism in setting property values makes one valid criticism: My observation should have been, “historical inequities such as ‘redlining,’ housing policies, and home ownership have nothing to do with reporting the current market value of a property” adding the word “reporting” for clarification.
The rates of home ownership in specific areas, exclusionary zoning policies and lack of non-discrimination protections may well affect the market, but none of those issues or their possible correction come under the authority of County Auditors.
I accept the correction and trust Sweeney and Outrich will acknowledge that county auditors have no control over alleged “racism in housing.”
Our job is to set values, as they are, nothing more and nothing less.
The charge of “systemic overvaluation” remains unproven among the witches’ brew of “statistics” in their study.
The response ignores two key points in my objection to the study’s conclusions: 1) the former Franklin County auditor, Clarence Mingo, is an African American and is highly unlikely to have allowed racist appraisals; and 2) the Ohio Department of Taxation reviews all county reappraisals specifically to assure correct sales ratios apply in each taxing district.
These reviews would have revealed any systemic over- or under-valuations, and they apparently did not.
Dusty Rhodes, Hamilton County Auditor