As voters are being asked to approve property tax increases nearly every election, local voters should know that some tax relief for property owners in Adams County is right around the corner. In the mid-1990’s, Adams County voters approved a whopping $44 million dollar bond issue to build four new high schools in the county – and now, the bonds are nearly paid off.
According to documents from the Adams County Auditor’s office, the 3.5 mill bond will expire in 2020, as Adams County taxpayers will have fulfilled their obligations on paying on the bond debt since 1995. As of June 1, 2019, $4,960,000.00 remains to be paid. This December, the Adams County/Ohio Valley School Board will write a check for $91,558.75 in interest and pay $1,575,000.00 on the principal leaving a balance of $3,385,000.00. The final payment for the bonds is due in December of 2021, meaning Adams County property owners will pay the property tax for one more year, in 2020 before their property taxes decrease. This only applies to residents of the Ohio Valley School District. When Manchester created their own district in the early-2,000’s, they took on the liability of their building.
Currently, the Adams County/Ohio Valley School District receives five different levies from local residents. The district has a 17 mill levy for current expenses, approved in 1976; 5.7 mills for current expenses approved in 1998; the new high school bond levy of 3.5 mills, approved by voters in 1994; a 3.9 mills bond levy for new elementary schools approved in 2006, and a 1/2 mill levy that pays for facilities and capital expenses, also approved in 2006. The capital improvement levy will expire in 2028 and the new elementary schools will be paid off in 2032. With all of the levies combined, the school district is receiving a total of 34.4 mills from local property owners.
To figure out how much you will save, the formula is simple: a Mill is a unit of measure, 1/1,000. In relation to real estate taxes, a mill is $1.00 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed value.
While property owners have reason to breathe a sigh of relief that property taxes will soon decrease, the school board could ask voters for an additional levy. Voters have continually denied the district additional funding on multiple occasions since the elementary school buildings were approved in 2006. Most recently, voters swiftly rejected a school safety levy last fall by nearly 1,000 votes.
