County expected to seek tax forgiveness

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Oakhill Renaissance Place has been real-estate tax free since Mahoning County bought it in 2006 for use as a county office complex, George J. Tablack, county administrator, announced at the county building commission and commissioners’ meetings.

Tablack said Thursday county officials learned of this in a final-notice they received this month from the Ohio Tax Commissioner’s Office.

Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center, which now houses the county’s Department of Job and Family Services, coroner’s office and Veteran’s Service Commission, the city health department and the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership.

“We still have to pay the back taxes,” said newly elected county Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti at the building-commission meeting.

As for the $565,125 in back real-estate taxes and interest that the county commissioners agreed last year to pay for the period before the county bought the former hospital, Tablack replied that he expects the county to appeal to the tax commissioner for forgiveness of those taxes based on a past error.

During the period for which these taxes were billed, Oakhill was used entirely for nonprofit purposes, except for a tiny pharmacy, Tablack said.

“We believe the tax commissioner has the legal right to amend a past error,” he added.