Youngstown housing authority tax bailout passes Ohio House

Staff report

COLUMBUS

Amended House Bill 390, a tax-related bill that includes an amendment to give the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority the opportunity to correct a decades-old real-estate tax liability issue, unanimously passed the Ohio House this week.

“I’m very pleased to have worked in a bipartisan manner to try to help the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority, which serves families in need throughout our community,” said state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th.

“The debt burden related to the YMHA’s Rockford Village should never have existed in the first place. The amendment to HB 390 is a common-sense approach to remedying a long overdue problem,” she said.

YMHA completed a $13.6 million makeover of its Rockford Village development on Youngstown’s East Side in 1999-2000, but, due to a clerical error, failed to re-apply for the property’s tax-exempt status. Rockford Village was formerly known as the Kimmelbrook Homes.

The total Rockford Village tax debt, which has been accumulating since 2002, includes at least $1.35 million in tax, $178,000 in penalties and $374,000 in interest.

“We’re very elated over the vote. I think it’s fair and equitable, and we look forward to its going to the Senate and passing,” said Carmelita Douglas, YMHA executive director.

The authority plans to apply for the tax amnesty immediately after the bill’s effective date, she said.

Under the legislation, YMHA must apply for the tax bailout within one year after the effective date of the bill.

The Vindicator first reported the housing authority’s tax debt in an exclusive story last Sept. 1.

The tax-amnesty language sponsored by Lepore-Hagan empowers the Ohio tax commissioner to place YMHA’s Rockford Village development on the tax-exempt list and abate all unpaid taxes, interest and penalties owed on the property.

“Enactment of my amendment will ensure that the YMHA is not forced to use $1.9 million to pay taxes that should not be owed,” Lepore-Hagan said.

Under the YMHA’s current budget constraints, finding $1.9 million to pay taxes would be an “almost impossible task,” Douglas said.