Majority of Ohioans Surveyed in Favor of Property Tax Abolishment
Budget Commission Meeting – December 30, 2025
Meeting Details: The Geauga County Budget Commission met in Special Session on Tuesday, December 30, 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 (arriving at 10:01 am), and Auditor Chuck Walder.
Staff Attendance: Chief Deputy Treasurer Caroline Mansfield (departing at 10:01 am), Deputy Auditors Kristen Sinatra,Tina Kloski, Chief Operations Officer Pam McMahan, ADP (Automatic Data Processing), Chief Deputy Administrator Frank Antenucci, and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Rine (virtual).
County Staff: Geauga Public Health Finance Director Katie Taylor
Members of the Public: This LWV Geauga Observer (virtual).
The meeting was called to order at 10:00 am.
Minutes: Minutes for the Regular Meeting on December 15, 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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Middlefield Village - Amendment #3. $4,879,951.15 in the general fund, $11,742,076.97 in special revenue funds, $1,847,785.64 in capital project funds, $6,841,740.19 in enterprise funds, and $174,225.01 in fiduciary funds for a total of $25,485,778.96.
Middlefield Village’s amendment certified increases in all funds except fiduciary funds (which remained unchanged). It was unanimously approved by the Budget Commissioners.
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Geauga County - Amendment #17. $69,339,402.59 in the general fund, $123,608,753.48 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 $253,901,451.54.
Geauga County’s amendment reflected a $6,468.01 decrease in the workforce investment special revenue fund. Ms. Sinatra clarified that this decrease was due to Job and Family Services (JFS) needing to decertify the revenue from an anticipated grant that they ended up not receiving, and she noted that without this decertification the account would become negative. Mr. Walder explained that this was because without decertification JFS would appear to be missing this revenue.
It was noted that this revenue decertification was just approved at the December 23, 2025 County Commissioners Meeting. Mr. Walder was concerned that this revenue change would create a lot of extra work closing out the financial year. Ms. McMahan stated that “nothing can be in the negative” at the close of the year. Mr. Walder expressed frustration: “We've asked people, like in every other year, please start winding down your funds mid-December so that we can close and lock down the system ahead of time (before the end of the year)... mostly Commissioners’ departments have ignored that request.” He went on to say: “I don't understand why, with the number of people the Commissioners have hired to supposedly run the administration side of their business, why this is getting worse rather than better. I do not understand. You would think they would have regular meetings with their staff saying, ‘Have you all closed your purchase orders? Because this is the deadline day.’ No, they didn't do that. ‘Have you all freed up any unanticipated revenue that didn't come in that you need to clear so you don't go negative by the end of the year?’ ‘No, we didn't do that, we’re waiting for the last minute.’”
The amendment was approved by a 2-1 vote, with Mr. Walder voting no.
2026 Property Tax Rates
Ms. Sinatra stated that the 2026 property tax rates have been received from the State. She provided a listing of the rates to the Budget Commissioners for review. Mr. Flaiz expressed appreciation for Ms. Sinatra’s work on this, and Mr. Hitchcock was glad to get the rates earlier than usual.
Upon reviewing the 2026 effective tax rates as calculated by the Auditor's Office staff, it was noted that Aquilla Village should be struck out and marked as dissolved. Mr. Flaiz observed that Bainbridge Township’s rate was higher than Russell Township’s despite Russell passing a police levy in November. There was extensive discussion about whether or not there may be an error in these rates. Mr. Walder said that he would review the rates to make sure they are correct before the Budget Commission votes on them. He stated that he must approve the rates by December 31 in his role as Auditor, but it is ok if the Budget Commission doesn’t approve them until January.
Survey on Possible Property Tax Abolishment
Mr. Walder shared the results of an August 2025 Fallon Research survey of Ohioans regarding the possible abolishment of property taxes. Observer Note: A copy of the results of this survey is available
here. He pointed out that 61% of those surveyed said that they would vote for a constitutional amendment to abolish property taxes, 21% said that they would vote against it, and 18% were swing votes. Mr. Flaiz noted that only 18% of people surveyed said that they would be in favor of having schools, libraries, safety services and other agencies cut their spending to adapt if property taxes were eliminated. He said “everyone wants to get rid of the tax, but nobody wants to cut the spending.” Mr. Walder found it interesting that the most commonly endorsed solution for funding entities that would no longer receive property taxes was to increase and expand sales tax. He said “I don't think they realize sales tax stops at a county level. It doesn't go to the local government level.” Mr. Flaiz responded: “It barely goes to the county. The state takes most of that money.”
Public Comment:
This observer asked a clarifying question regarding the Geauga County amendment to decertify revenue; the answer is reflected in the content of this report above. This observer also requested a copy of all materials from the meeting. Mr. Walder said that they would not provide the tax rate information until after it is ratified by the Budget Commission at a future meeting. The other documents from the meeting were received by this observer via email on December 30, 2025.
Geauga Public Health (GPH) Finance Director Katie Taylor thanked the Budget Commission and its staff for its help and guidance over the last few months. She said that there was still work to do to clean up GPH’s finances but noted that significant progress has been made.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:44 am.
Next Meeting: The next Budget Commission meeting 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: Gail Roussey
Reviewer: Carol Benton
Submitted: December 31, 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.