Why are taxes so high in Columbus?

[Rosebush1]

Not all tax abatement impacts school taxes. Some communities only abate the non school portion.
Municipal property tax is abated (go to the county auditor site for a breakdown on where your property tax goes) but they still collect income tax from anyone working or living there. A friend who serves on a suburban city council says they are very dependent on income tax to run the city.

Tax abatement is here to stay to attract and keep jobs. Developers, businesses and builders understand this and play one community against another. If you don't play ball the next town over will. If your state doesn't play ball the next state over will.
Hilliard definitely has issues with too many apartment complexes in their school district, most are in the Columbus portion of the district. Columbus could care less about planning thoughtful development.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by Rosebush1

Not all tax abatement impacts school taxes. Some communities only abate the non school portion.
Municipal property tax is abated (go to the county auditor site for a breakdown on where your property tax goes) but they still collect income tax from anyone working or living there. A friend who serves on a suburban city council says they are very dependent on income tax to run the city.

Tax abatement is here to stay to attract and keep jobs. Developers, businesses and builders understand this and play one community against another. If you don't play ball the next town over will. If your state doesn't play ball the next state over will.
Hilliard definitely has issues with too many apartment complexes in their school district, most are in the Columbus portion of the district. Columbus could care less about planning thoughtful development.

As it was explained to me by an aggrieved homeowner in Columbus, the Columbus abatement program did abate the school real estate taxes. I don't know if this was an accurate statement.

Your comment about apartment construction in the Columbus portion of Hilliard raises an interesting point. Did these projects receive abatements?

Personally, I believe Ohio should pass a law allowing school districts to block abatement of their real estate taxes within their district.

Abatements too often are give-aways to developers. Columbus was abating taxes on condo projects in German Village and adjacent neighborhoods and in the Short North.

[bgfalcons86]

Originally Posted by Jbeechuk

I also live in Hilliard. The high taxes are almost exclusively tied to the very good, but not excellent, school system.

For years, the Hilliard city council used Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) to lure in new development. They offered to pay for new roads, infrastructure, utilities, etc. to developers to bring in new businesses and new homes/apartments. They took money away from the schools and gave it to the developers. It's good for Hilliard development, but obviously bad for the schools.

This resulted in frequent levies for high amounts to keep the schools financially sound.

The past few years have brought a ton of new apartments...like over 1500 units. And these flood the schools with kids. More kids mean more resources and more teachers. And the teachers have built in raises yearly, so without levies passing, they would have to lay off staff.

Last year the voters finally put an end to the use of TIFs for apartment growth. So more money will stay in the school system. That is good. I feel Hilliard is a nice city and Old Hilliard is starting to become a pretty cool downtown area.

I live in Hilliard and I pretty much agree with everything you've said here. Hilliard is nice (and getting nicer) and definitely has positive momentum. Looking at the latest census data (income, home values) would bear that out. The schools are very good (though not elite) and my three in college have definitely been well-prepared by their Hilliard education.

That said, the City of Hilliard cannot control the development that occurs outside of its boundaries, but inside the Hilliard City Schools boundaries. The City of Columbus has built a number of apartments in its portion of Hilliard CSD. At least most of the apartments inside the City of Hilliard are actually pretty nice and rents are fairly high -- especially in the newer complexes.

[Rosebush1]

Originally Posted by WRnative

As it was explained to me by an aggrieved homeowner in Columbus, the Columbus abatement program did abate the school real estate taxes. I don't know if this was an accurate statement.

Your comment about apartment construction in the Columbus portion of Hilliard raises an interesting point. Did these projects receive abatements?

Personally, I believe Ohio should pass a law allowing school districts to block abatement of their real estate taxes within their district.

Abatements too often are give-aways to developers. Columbus was abating taxes on condo projects in German Village and adjacent neighborhoods and in the Short North.

I don't know whether the new apartments in Hilliard/Columbus city were abated. Developers pounced on this area for relatively cheap farmland suitable for apartment development. Not all areas are suitable for single family homes, especially in the hodge podge sprawl areas of Columbus.

[SmokeyCat]

Where I live the property tax rate is 1.10%-sales tax rate 8% (some cities can add on an additional 0.25%)-mello roos is an additional 1% added to property tax rate if you live in an area that assesses mello roos (usually new home construction) and mellos roos duration can be from 15-25 yrs. After yrs of research you cannot escape costs. If the property tax is low cities will capture costs in other ways. We really don't own our homes-we may pay them off if we are fortunate to be able to do so but continue to pay property taxes the rest of our lives. If you don't pay your property taxes a tax lien is put on your home and the taxing authority will hold a tax lien sale on your home or takes title of your home and sells it to recapture costs. If you don't pay you find out who really owns your home.

[Jbeechuk]

Originally Posted by SmokeyCat

Where I live the property tax rate is 1.10%-sales tax rate 8% (some cities can add on an additional 0.25%)-mello roos is an additional 1% added to property tax rate if you live in an area that assesses mello roos (usually new home construction) and mellos roos duration can be from 15-25 yrs. After yrs of research you cannot escape costs. If the property tax is low cities will capture costs in other ways. We really don't own our homes-we may pay them off if we are fortunate to be able to do so but continue to pay property taxes the rest of our lives. If you don't pay your property taxes a tax lien is put on your home and the taxing authority will hold a tax lien sale on your home or takes title of your home and sells it to recapture costs. If you don't pay you find out who really owns your home.

Yes, what is cheap in some states is more expensive in others, and vice versa.


Here in Columbus, we have high property tax rates, but lower state income tax comes out of our paychecks. We also have lower home prices and very low car insurance rates compared to most other states. Now California has low property taxes, as you said, but the mello roos you mentioned is an additional burden, plus the much higher CA state income tax.


Everyone has a financial burden, no matter where you live.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by Rosebush1

Catholic schools outperform public schools at a much lower cost.

With private schools now receiving substantial public funding in the form of vouchers, why aren't they subjected to the same testing requirements as public schools?

<<Ohio's school voucher and testing system does not give a good comparison between public high schools and the private high schools that take the vouchers.

The private schools don't want to take the same tests, and usually don't.


The state is also not reporting results the same way for private high schools schools as public ones.
And since most voucher high schools have selective admissions with special tests and interviews that most public schools don't have, test scores are often skewed.>>

Cleveland's magnet schools score as well on state tests as St. Ignatius | cleveland.com

The obvious benefit of cherry-picking student bodies as described in this article:

<<While private schools that cherry-pick their students often have better looking test scores, so do public magnet schools with competitive admissions. In Cleveland, those schools even scored better than schools like St. Ignatius.>>

St. Ignatious is generally considered as the best parochial high school in Greater Cleveland.

<<
But Figlio found that while voucher students were typically better-off financially and stronger academically than students they left behind, they did worse after going to private schools than comparable students that stayed in public school.


"The kids that were going to the private schools were doing worse," he said. "The kids who participated in the program did considerably worse compared to the closest-looking kids in similar schools.">>

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index..._pluto_article