Citizens for Talawanda Schools

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- June 30, 2009

Citizens for Talawanda Schools (CFTS) is a Political Action Committee (PAC) created many years ago by a group of citizens interested in supporting Talawanda Schools. Over the years they have served the community and school district in many ways, often as a campaign group, but also as a credible information resource regarding the law relative to school district operations and funding. Most recently our group was successful in helping to pass a 4.7 mills bond issue to build a modern high school in Talawanda School District.

Recently a new PAC (Stop-TSD) has been formed by citizens in our community in an effort to overturn the bond issue passed to build a new high school. They claim that they are angry with the Talawanda Board of Education (BOE) for questioning requests for commercial/rental property reassessments, and they also claim that the Talawanda BOE and the City of Oxford are in collusion regarding the development and annexation of the property for the new high school.

CFTS would like to provide some factual information regarding the process of the Butler County Board of Revision for property reassessment and also the City of Oxford annexation process.

Talawanda is a public school system whose revenues are funded primarily through the generation of local property tax. It is standard operating procedure for the fiscal authority of a public school system to monitor these revenues. Talawanda, like many other school systems in the region regularly appoint a legal representative to represent the school district during the Board of Revision process to assist in establishing the relevance and proper criteria/evidence to warrant a property tax reduction. In Butler County, Lakota, Middletown, Fairfield, and Monroe are also going through this process. In Hamilton County, Northwest, Forest Hills, Mariemont, North College Hill, Cincinnati Public, Reading, Lockland, Mount Healthy, and Indian Hill are also engaging in this process. This is a regular part of the fiscal management of public school systems and below is a list of related information:

Bullet Points for Butler County Board of Revision (BOR) Process

• Only the BOR has the authority to adjust property values once they have been set in the tax ‘abstract’. The abstract was the basis for the property tax bills released in Feb/Mar 2009.
• The BOR is comprised of one official from each of the three county offices: commissioner’s office; Butler County Auditor; and Butler County Treasurer. All 3 members must vote on every reappraisal request. The BOR has the final say on all valuation decisions.
• The BOR may waive public hearings on some reappraisal requests BUT all 3 members are still required to vote on every request.
• There will be BOR hearings scheduled for the properties that Talawanda has questioned. These dates have not yet been set.
• Talawanda is seeking BOR review on the reappraisal requests only for rental and commercial property owners. That is consistent with prior years and is based on the ability of these classes of property owners to pass any higher taxes on to their consumers. Residential and farm owners do not have that same relief from possible higher taxes.
• Talawanda will be represented by an attorney at the BOR hearings. Only a licensed attorney can present evidence to the BOR and ask questions of the property owner.
• Talawanda has requested to have representation on all rental/commercial reappraisal requests that we have been alerted to by the Butler County Auditor. The County Auditor is required by law to notify ALL school districts of such requests. All of these property owners were treated equally.
• Talawanda’s role in the BOR is to make sure the final BOR decision is truly based on a fair market value as compared to liked properties and that proper supporting paperwork was presented by the property owner. The BOR will grant many of the reappraisal requests and our counsel will in no way object to any lower values that are properly documented.

Some misinformation regarding the annexation of the new high school is being provided by the Stop-TSD PAC. The facts are… that the agreement to annex the new high school into the City of Oxford will result in continued revenues and wage taxes for the city, as they are already receiving these taxes from the current high school located within the city limits. In addition, the new high school property will have access to city water and sewer services. Utilities serve as a revenue source for the city- so the cost of the city’s portion may be recouped over time. Everyone can agree that city access to emergency services such as police, fire, and emergency medical teams are extremely important. These reasons have brought city and school officials together to develop opportunities and services to best serve our community and our children.

We encourage all citizens of the Talawanda School District community to be diligent in getting the facts regarding some of the recent political debates occurring throughout the community relative to property assessments and annexation of the new high school.

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