Budget Commission Votes to Suppress Job and Family Services Levy to Provide Property Tax Relief Due to Higher Than Anticipated County Cash Carryover
Budget Commission Meeting – December 15, 2025
Meeting Details: The Geauga County Budget Commission met in Regular Session on Monday, December 15, 2025 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. The meeting was in person with a virtual attendance option via MS Teams. To attend Budget Commission meetings virtually via MS Teams, email an invitation request to Pam McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.
Meeting Attendance: Prosecutor Jim Flaiz, Treasurer Chris Hitchcock, and Auditor Chuck Walder.
Staff Attendance: Deputy Auditors Kristen Sinatra and Tina Kloski, Chief Operations Officer Pam McMahan, ADP (Automatic Data Processing) Chief Deputy Administrator Frank Antenucci, and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Rine.
County Staff: County Commissioner Carolyn Brakey, County Administrator Amy Bevan, Geauga County Budget and Finance Manager Adrian Gorton, and Geauga Public Health Finance Director Katie Taylor.
Members of the Public: Geauga Times Courier Journalist Anastasia Nicholas (in person) and this LWV Geauga Observer (virtual).
The meeting was called to order at 10:00 am.
Minutes: Minutes for the Regular Meeting on December 1, 2025 were approved and are available here.
The following Revenue Certificates were approved:
Reviewer Note: An explanation of the different types of funds in revenue certifications can be found
here.
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Berkshire Local Schools - Amendment #5. $25,255,719.81 in the general fund, $4,485,708.14 in special revenue funds, $1,609,211.37 in debt service funds, $722,624.59 in capital project funds, $882,491.27 in enterprise funds, $480,181.82 in internal service funds, and $197,472.01 in fiduciary funds for a total of $33,633,409.01.
Berkshire’s amendment reflects a special revenue fund increase of $16,566.21.
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Geauga Park District - Amendment #5. $12,265,642.22 in the general fund and $3,913,694.12 in capital project funds for a total of $16,179,336.34.
Geauga Park District’s amendment reflected a capital project funds increase of $281,388.14. Ms. Sinatra said the money came from three sources: the U.S. Forestry Service, the Ohio Department of Water Resources, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. This money will be used for improvements at Veterans Legacy Woods.
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Munson Township - Amendment #4. $1,829,832.32 in the general fund, $4,680,425.94 in special revenue funds, $250,000.00 in capital project funds, and $2,102.71 in special assessment funds for a total of $6,762,360.97.
Munson’s amendment reflects a $50,000 decrease in capital project funds and a $2.71 increase
in special assessment funds.
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Chardon Township - Amendment #4 - $1,034,295.89 in the general fund, $3,582,149.98 in special revenue funds, $199,167.93 in debt service funds, $350,000.00 in capital project funds, and $746.48 in fiduciary funds for a total of $5,166,360.28.
Chardon Township’s amendment certified a debt service fund increase of $150,000 and a $350,000.00 increase in capital project funds.
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Geauga County - Amendment #15 correction - $69,339,402.59 in the general fund, $126,792,701.84 in special revenue funds, $5,172,649.58 in debt service funds, $1,143,702.06 in special assessment funds, $30,382,129.09 in capital project funds, $17,877,430.89 in enterprise funds, $1,759,600.37 in internal service funds, and $4,706,706.85 in fiduciary funds for a total of $257,174,323.27.
Ms. Sinatra explained that the enterprise funds amount was incorrect in Geauga County’s amendment that was approved at the December 1, 2025 Budget Commission meeting. The Budget Commissioners approved the correction.
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Geauga County - Amendment #16- $69,339,402.59 in the general fund, $123,615,221.49 in special revenue funds, $5,158,999.58 in debt service funds, $1,143,702.06 in special assessment funds, $30,382,129.09 in capital project funds, $17,736,430.89 in enterprise funds, $1,825,327.00 in internal service funds, and $4,706,706.85 in fiduciary funds for a total of $253,907,919.55.
Geauga County’s amendment certified decreases in special revenue funds, debt service funds, and enterprise funds as well as an increase in internal service funds.
Geauga Public Health (GPH) Cash Transfers
The Budget Commissioners voted to accept the following GPH cash transfers:
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$4,147.10 from Fund 6002 (GPH General Fund) to Fund 1008 (ADP Contract Services) to pay GPH’s quarterly invoice from ADP.
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$305.72 from Fund 6002 (GPH General Fund) to Fund 1001 (Geauga County General Fund) to pay for postage costs.
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$53.12 from Fund 6005 (GPH Food Service) to Fund 1001 (Geauga County General Fund) to pay for postage costs.
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$20.17 from Fund 6011 (GPH Private Water System) to Fund 1001 (Geauga County General Fund) to pay for postage costs.
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$908.95 from Fund 6023 (GPH Sewage Treatment System) to Fund 1001 (Geauga County General Fund) to pay for postage costs.
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$4,572.30 from Fund 6037 (GPH For Sale of Property) to Fund 1001 (Geauga County General Fund) to pay for postage costs.
Mr. Walder asked Ms. Taylor if GPH was allowed to do notices by email, and she responded that some of them must be mailed. Mr. Walder pointed out that GPH spends “tens of thousands” on postage each year. Mr. Hitchcock suggested checking with GPH’s APA (Assistant Prosecuting Attorney) to find out if some of the notices could be emailed.
General Discussion: Possible Levy Suspension
County Administrator Amy Bevan said she wanted to know if it was still possible to “suppress a levy or two.” She noted that historically levy suspensions occur earlier in the year and said that she could present the matter to the County Commissioners at their meeting the next day in the interest of moving as quickly as possible. County Commissioner Carolyn Brakey added that she wanted to know the Budget Commission’s opinion on balancing this potential opportunity to “offer meaningful (tax) relief to property owners” with the possibility of property taxes being abolished.
Mr. Flaiz commented that “as a Budget Commission member, I feel a little hoodwinked” because the County presented its budget to the Budget Commission just a few months ago, but the County’s financial picture as presented at the December 9, 2025 County Commissioners Meeting was markedly different from what the Budget Commission was told. Observer Note: More information on the County’s budget is available in the LWV Geauga Observer Report on the 2026 Budget Hearings. The LWV Geauga Observer Report on the December 9, 2025 Commissioners Meeting is available here. He said that the County’s cash carryover was now estimated to be much higher than was stated to the Budget Commission in August. Observer Note: There was some uncertainty about the new estimated cash carryover, with updated carryover estimates in the $15-20 million range, compared to roughly $6 million as estimated at the Budget Hearings in August. Mr. Flaiz said the Budget Commission would have taken action to provide relief to taxpayers at the Budget Hearings “if you (referring to Geauga County Budget and Finance Manager Adrian Gorton) had been accurate in your budget submission,” but he didn’t know if it was possible to reduce or suspend levies this late in the year.
Mrs. Brakey said “I take fault for this,” adding that the matter should have been brought to the Budget Commission sooner. She said they will try to “do better” in the future. Mr. Flaiz continued to express his displeasure with the proceedings at the December 9 Commissioners meeting: “Instead of talking about tax relief at the meeting, it was spent maligning the Auditor and the IT (ADP) staff over $130,000, when you guys (the County) all of a sudden discovered you have $20 million extra money.” Mrs. Brakey said she felt it was her job to do due diligence for any department needing money at the end of the year. She said she wanted to focus on a solution moving forward. Mr. Flaiz suggested “holding your budget staff accountable and having them present us accurate numbers.”
Mr. Walder said that normally once his office submits the paperwork to the State on the valuation of all the levies including those passed in the November election, no changes can be made to levy collection. He said this paperwork was already submitted to the State, but he had Ms. Sinatra check to see if changes still might be possible. He noted that “this is a real double-edged sword, because once we open this Pandora's box, what's to stop another taxing agency from slipping in at the eleventh hour? And I gotta tell you, I don't have staff to do this.” Mr. Walder said that, in checking with the State, it was discovered that “just by a fluke” Cuyahoga and Trumbull Counties have not submitted their paperwork to the State yet, and therefore the State hasn’t calculated Geauga’s tax rates because it shares “conjoining areas” with both of those counties. Observer Note: This is because the tax rates of Cuyahoga and Trumbull Counties affect the property taxes of some Geauga residents. For example, South Russell residents pay property taxes to the Chagrin Falls School District, which is based in Cuyahoga County. He warned that Cuyahoga and Trumbull could submit their information to the State at any time, at which point Geauga could no longer change its rates. He also cautioned that “they (the State) do not like this (changing tax rates after submission).” Mr. Hitchcock agreed that “we (the Budget Commission) don't appreciate last minute budgeting, nor does the State. It is bad budgeting.” He also agreed with Mr. Walder’s sentiment that they could be opening a Pandora’s box by altering tax rates at the last minute.
Mr. Walder said that the County’s budget has a history of greatly underestimating its cash carryover dating back to at least 2018, saying it is usually “off by at least $10 million.” He stated that it was an “illusion” that the estimated carryover cannot be adjusted, adding that unanticipated revenue can be used to make a better carryover prediction. Mr. Walder wondered when the County became aware of the unanticipated revenue that has caused its estimated carryover to increase so dramatically, because if the County had told the Budget Commission about it prior to the submission of paperwork to the State on November 24, “we wouldn’t be having this problem.” He expressed frustration that, prior to Commissioner Brakey’s election, the Commissioners haven’t come to Budget Hearings, which he felt indicates that “they could care less.” Mr. Walder also said that what “worried me the most” was talk at the December 9, 2025 Commissioners Meeting about the County establishing a “rainy day fund.” He said he isn’t sure that such a fund is legal at the County level. Mr. Flaiz felt that the high cash carryover and millions of dollars in miscellaneous County funds already constitute "multiple rainy day funds. They've been hiding money for years in these funds.” Observer Note: The list of Geauga County’s funds runs five pages long.
Mr. Walder inquired as to how much levy money the County would like to suppress. Mr. Gorton said he was asked to find about $2 million worth of suppression and suggested suppressing the 0.5 mill Job and Family Services (JFS) levy worth about $1.6 million because it is unqualified. Observer Note: Qualified levies were passed pre-2013 and receive a 12.5% State subsidy (a rollback) which reduces the effective property tax rate paid by property owners. Unqualified levies are not eligible for the State-funded rollbacks, which means property owners must pay the full effective tax rate. Therefore, when an unqualified levy is suppressed, 100% of the tax money goes back to taxpayers, whereas if a qualified levy is suppressed, 87.5% of the tax money goes back to taxpayers and 12.5% goes back to the State. Mr. Walder said he had those numbers ready and agreed that this was the best levy to suppress. However, he was unhappy about how the situation came about, with the Commissioners’ Office “assigning work to my staff to go run scenarios” when they were busy with other important work. He felt “something as significant as what you're asking for should go through the Auditor directly.” He also said he didn’t know if this tax relief idea was coming from all of the Commissioners or not. Mrs. Brakey said it was coming from her.
Mr. Walder went on to say that his office had prepared a new rate resolution to reflect suppressing the 0.5 mill JFS levy. He gave kudos to Ms. Sinatra for her hard work on this. Ms. Rine said that this new rate resolution would need to be in the form of an amendment since the rate resolution was previously approved by the Commissioners. She also wanted to add some additional language that “reflects how we got here.” Mr. Walder liked the idea of adding language explaining “why this is being allowed now” so that other entities do not start making changes at the end of the year as a common practice. Ms. Rine explained that, should the Budget Commission take action, the best procedure would be for the Budget Commission to vote to suppress the levy, and the Commissioners would then vote on an amended rate resolution reflecting this suppression.
Mr. Hitchcock noted the lack of concrete information from the Commissioners’ Office regarding the precise amount of the cash balance. He opined that “it is quite possible that a rate reduction of $1.67 million is not enough” and expressed his displeasure with the lack of time available for considering the matter. He asked if the Commissioners’ Office could provide an accurate number by the end of the day. Mr. Gorton said that he could not do this using the financial system available to him. There was some back and forth about this as well as whether or not the County’s budget submission was “faulty.” Of note, Mr. Gorton pointed out that typically 10-15% of appropriations in the County budgets go unused each year, which he said amounts to an extra roughly $10 million in carryover that he cannot control. Returning to the idea that the proposed rate reduction wasn’t enough, Mr. Hitchcock suggested giving back $5 million to Geauga taxpayers. It was determined that the only unqualified County-wide levy was the 0.5 mill JFS one, and there was general hesitancy to reduce qualified levies that would return some money to the State.
Mr. Flaiz said that, should the Budget Commission vote to suppress the 0.5 mill JFS Children’s Services levy, his office would be able to get the amended rate resolution to the Commissioners in time for them to vote on it at their meeting the next day.
Mr. Hitchcock continued to advocate for returning more money to the taxpayers. Mr. Walder noted that Mr. Hitchcock has long been a proponent of returning more of entities’ high cash balances to taxpayers than what the Budget Commission usually decides to do. Mr. Walder says the Budget Commission usually compromises by crafting a “middle ground” amount of levy suppression, but he said that, looking back, “I've regretted every time that I have been the one that's brought it to middle ground” because the high cash balance issues keep coming back year after year. He said that he was “becoming more aligned with Chris (Mr. Hitchcock) as time goes on” regarding giving back larger amounts of taxpayers’ money when there are high cash balances. Mr. Flaiz said he agreed that they probably should give back more than the $1.6 million, but at least this would provide some relief.
Mr. Hitchcock wondered about reducing the County sales tax. Mr. Walder said that wasn’t possible because it’s collateral against the County’s bonds. Mr. Flaiz also pointed out that reducing the sales tax would benefit many non-Geaugans who happen to shop in the County.
Mr. Walder proposed a meeting in January once the actual cash balance is known so that the Commissioners are all more aware of the issue and solutions can be discussed. Mr. Flaiz liked this idea. He said that suppressing the $1.6 million was not enough, but it was all they could do given the time limitations at present. He added that in January they could look at the real carryover amount and examine all of the County’s funds to see where all the money is, and then invite the Commissioners to a work session to learn more about the County’s financial history and figure out a better path forward.
Mr. Walder suggested the Commissioners could shift some of the County’s excess money to “the local townships that are hurting,” which could prevent those townships from having to put levies on the ballot. He said “the way to help them is to give them more of that pie that they already get,” which refers to a larger portion of undivided local government funds. Observer Note: Currently, 38% of the undivided local government funds distribution goes to the County, and the remainder is distributed to each City, Township, and Village in the County proportionately based upon population according to the most recent Federal Census. The minimum guaranteed amount of funding for each entity is $15,000. However, Mr. Flaiz cautioned that the City of Chardon has veto power regarding changes to the undivided local government fund distribution formula, which could potentially make it challenging for the County to reclaim any of its portion given to municipalities in the future should the need arise.
Mr. Flaiz then moved that the Budget Commission suppress the 2015 0.5 mill JFS Children’s Services levy in its entirety, noting that it amounts to $1,638,965 at 98% collection. Observer Note: The Commissioners will provide this amount of money for Children’s Services out of its excess cash carryover, so Children’s Services will not lose any funding. Mr. Walder seconded the motion. Mr. Hitchcock asked “is there no other opportunity for taxpayers to benefit (even more) from the embarrassingly large surplus, estimated at $20 million?” Mr. Flaiz and Mr. Walder reiterated that there wasn’t enough time to do the research needed for anything else. Then the Budget Commissioners unanimously voted to approve the suppression of the levy. Mr. Hitchcock commented that this was “an amazing example of county government working. I wish Commissioner Brakey was not alone (i.e., that the other Commissioners were present as well), but this is very, very good. It's also embarrassing that this did not happen back in September. We cannot have this happen again. Budgeting is of extreme importance.”
Mr. Flaiz said that his office would “bend over backwards” to get the paperwork to the Commissioners in time for their meeting the following day, at which point it would be up to the Commissioners to pass the amended rate resolution or not. Observer Note: The Commissioners did pass the amended rate resolution reflecting the suppression of the 0.5 mill JFS Children’s Services levy at their December 16, 2025 meeting. A press release regarding this action is available here, and a video of the meeting is available here. An email from the State Department of Taxation forwarded to this observer by the Auditor’s Office confirmed that the State of Ohio has accepted the revision of Geauga’s tax rates.
Meeting Scheduling
The Special Meeting to wrap up any necessary year-end items was confirmed to take place on December 30, 2025 at 10:00 am. The first Budget Commission meeting of 2026 was rescheduled from January 5, 2025 to January 8, 2025 at 10:00 am.
Public Comment:
This observer asked whether the Property Tax Abolishment Response Taskforce (PART) meetings were public meetings. Mr. Walder said they are open meetings, and anyone who wants to attend virtually is welcome. This observer said that LWVG would add that the public could ask for a Microsoft Teams invitation to PART meetings via an email to Ms. McMahan to the December 1, 2025 PART LWVG Observer Report. This observer also requested a copy of all materials from the meeting, which were received via email on December 15, 2025.
Geauga Times Courier Journalist Anastasia Nicholas asked Mr. Hitchcock to clarify his remark that the $1.6 million returned to taxpayers might not be enough. He responded that “I don't think that's enough of a return to the taxpayers based on the $20 million surplus.” Ms. Nicholas inquired about the difference the levy suspension will make in citizens’ property tax bills. Mr. Walder estimated that the reduction in property taxes would be roughly $12 per $100,000 of property valuation.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:31 am.
Next Meeting: The next Budget Commission meeting will be a Special Meeting for year-end items and regular business on Tuesday, December 30, 2025 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. There will be a Special Meeting for regular business on January 8, 2025 at 10:00 am. Virtual attendance for all Budget Commission meetings is available via Microsoft Teams by emailing an invitation request to Ms. McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.
Observer: Sarah McGlone
Editor: Rooney Moy
Reviewer: Gail Roussey
Submitted: December 19, 2025
The League of Women Voters of Geauga is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. They do not support or oppose individual candidates or parties. Learn more about the LWVG at www.lwvgeauga.org.