Residents question tax re-evaluation
By Jennifer Mitchell
Rocky River
Published May 24, 2006

A loss of revenue from Westgate Mall and increasing operation costs has the school district reviewing its income. One aspect of the process is to take a look at whether it’s receiving what it should in the way of property taxes.

Rocky River City School District recently sent notification to some residents that their property taxes would be re-examined based on the sales price of their homes.

Homeowners here want to know why, and on Thursday, they brought the question to the Board of Education.

Schools Superintendent Dennis Allen said that the district has historically asked Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo to review business properties sold in Rocky River to determine if the current tax assessment is in line with auditor’s value, established by the sales price.

Allen said the district has sometimes found a discrepancy between the two values, and that it impacts the tax money collected to support the public schools.

Faced with the loss of revenue from Westgate and escalating expenses, the district will now extend the practice to include residential property sales.

The board said that the district is making every effort to protect its revenue base without having to return to voters for an additional levy before 2008. While some homeowners say they are being targeted, Board Member Jay Milano said that the practice is fair because the taxation rate will simply reflect the value of the residence based on an actual sale.

In the cases the district is pursuing, he said, there are discrepancies amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars between what the auditor’s tax value is and what the new owner paid for the residence.

According to district spokeswoman Robin Reinbold, homeowners said that the district should take no action and simply allow the county’s reappraisal process to eventually catch up with them.

However, the process can take several years, resulting in the loss of much-needed education funding. Board members said that difficult economic times were compelling them to follow the law one used in other communities and that the Ohio Supreme Court has upheld as a school district’s legal right.

Allen said that the effort only impacts houses that sell. Due to the legal expenses involved, the district plans only to pursue review of purchases with large discrepancies between valuation and sales price.

Homeowners said this practice is unfair, and they want sales transactions in the city to be reviewed.

Board members and Allen agreed to explore options to extend the deadline established by the county for the process. Dennis noted that he could provide board members and the community with additional information regarding the criteria for identifying sales that were selected for review.

The 2005 closure of Westgate Mall created a major hole in the district’s revenue, erasing $23 million in taxable market valuation. Allen cites a Board of Revisions’ decision lowering property tax collections within the district for three years as another blow to the schools’ budget

Though located in Fairview Park, Westgate Mall and some of the surrounding area are in the Rocky River School District. The redeveloped shopping center will not open until 2007.

Without input from Rocky River schools, Fairview Park granted a seven-year tax abatement on new structures at Westgate, meaning tax revenues likely won’t rebound for the school district when the new structure is completed.

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