COLUMBIANA COUNTY Auditor seeks to reduce property taxes

By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County Auditor Nancy Milliken is asking the state to reduce proposed real estate taxes even more.
Milliken said Monday she has asked to meet with Ohio Tax Commissioner William Wilkins to discuss the county's mandatory six-year reappraisal.
The move follows a meeting last week between Milliken and her ad hoc tax advisory committee. Milliken said the committee members urged her to press for further reductions in the proposed increases.
Milliken's figures indicate values rose about 7.3 percent over three years, and the state has now dropped its estimates to 0.8 percent of her numbers.
The figure can be misleading to taxpayers because there will be no straight percentage increase in taxes. Every property is evaluated.
The current taxable value of all county real estate is $3.6 billion, which represents 35 percent of the total value.
Milliken said she hopes to meet soon with Wilkins to resolve the difference in numbers.
Town meetings
She earlier announced plans to have town meetings throughout the county starting next month to explain the increases in valuation. She said she wants to have the meetings before the holiday rush begins.
However, the auditor noted that when she contested the state's proposed figures three years ago in another mandated tax review, she wound up talking with a mediator, who helped to resolve the dispute between her office and the state.
One the values are set, they will also be posted on her office's Web site so people can look up the new values of their property.
Should the dispute come to a court challenge, her office would use the current tax figures to bill owners while the figures were contested. The county treasurer's office will mail bills around Feb. 1 in 2005.
wilkinson@vindy.com