The House and Senate approved the conference committee amendment yesterday, severely limiting a school district’s ability to protect its tax base through the board of revision (BOR) process. The amended version of House Bill (HB) 126 now goes to Gov. DeWine for signature.
To recap the day, the conference committee amendment was released a few minutes before the conference committee met yesterday at 10:30 a.m. The conference committee approved the amendment by a 4-2 party-line vote. Soon after, both chambers considered the conference committee report and approved the amendment, with the House vote 59-35 and the Senate vote 24-8.
Click here to access a synopsis of the changes made by the conference committee, and click here to read the bill text of the changes.
Some of the amended provisions include:
- Prohibits boards of education (BOE) from filing residential and agricultural complaints.
- Permits BOE to file commercial complaints only when (1) the property was sold in the year before the tax year for which the complaint was filed and (2) the sale price was at least 10 percent and $500,000 more than the auditor’s value. The $500,000 value is for tax year 2022. The amount will be indexed to inflation each year going forward.
- Requires a BOE to provide notice and pass a resolution for each parcel, with the notice going to the tax address and mailing address.
- Requires a BOE to give notice to property owners at least seven days in advance when they plan to vote on a resolution authorizing a valuation challenge.
- Eliminates notice to BOE for counter-complaints, which means:
- BOE will no longer receive notice from the County Auditor when a complaint is filed, which means that districts will have to file counter complaints within 30 days of the date the owner files the original complaint.
- However, property owners must still receive notice of BOE complaints and have 30 days from receipt of that notice to file a counter-complaint.
- Bars settlement agreements entered into after the effective date of the legislation.
- Provides that the BOR must dismiss a case if it is not decided by the BOR within 1 year of its filing.
- Prohibit a BOE from filing an appeal of a BOR decision.
Thank you for all your advocacy on this bill. While yesterday's decision was not the preferred outcome, your advocacy was crucial to the House's decision to restore BOEs ability to file commercial challenges.
Please contact us with questions.
Other Alerts from HB 126
Important ResourcesLSC Synopsis
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