The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1951-09-06

Reappraisement of property Noble county is going
to be big issue in this community for several months
with the that the state tax board of
appeals had filed suit to force the county commissioners
appropriate $4,000 for this purpose
There is question but what the will eventually
win out and Noble county will have another reapprase
men although will be against the wishes of local officials
and most of the property owners
We have favored the county side this picture since
it represents the feelings of practically all property
III the county but only talr tnat we look at the other
side and present the facts which the state using back
up their request.
State Department of Taxation and the State Board of
Tax Appeals feel that real valuations still the back
bone of tax must first be subjected complete
overhaul on two fronts
Two years ago the department of taxation embarked
upon the task of equalization of property values and
substantial progress has been made according Edwin J.
Kirwan chairman of the state board of tax appeals
Of equal mportances, however, is the closely allied
problem of increasing the valuations which dropped to
rdcuousy low levels during the lean depression years of
the thrties.
The equalization program is designed to equaze the
values of properties in the classcations
Once this equalization drive completed the state will
turn its attention to raising the general level of valuations
porous Twenties but also a result of improvements
resulting from new construction changes in the of
the land itself This is where Noble county has been
lax, according to the state department.
Some weight must be given to the nflaonary trend,
state officials believe and while the department of taxation
has been making prices of property
it reluctant to arbitrarily follow sale prices in the deter
mination of valuations
counties have valuations their real property which
St below their predepreSSon peaks This percentage of
deficiency ranges from sc of percent in Mercer county
to the state high of 81 percent in Noble county.
The greatest increase in the state has been made in
Medina county with jump of 1872 percent it's peak
OF 1890 largely the result of large scale residential
to accommodate the overflow from the Cleveland
and Akron areas
Caldwell and the Noble county is now going
through this construction period and the state determined
to benefit and increase the valuation
But the state department comes back and said the
valuation much too low and another appraemen
be held They went to court last week and eventually it
believed the local officials will be forced take the
which the state desires.
Tax officials believe that two opposing forces may
have served to reard the work of reapprasa They
depicted by the method of distribution of local government
and school funds
Distribution of the local fund based upon
the local population ratio to the statewide population
the tax value ratio to the statewide valuation Of real
property Upon this basis the higher the county appraisal
the greater the particular county shares the local
government fund.
In the distribution of state school subsidy however,
there actually penalty upon the school district which
has high valuation This results from the fact that the
states Traditional aid" is distributed only the original
fat distribution by the state plus the derived
from the inundated local school levy is insufficient
the school foundation program
With this situation, the schools will suffer loss of
by low property valuation because the deficiency
will be met by the states additional aid" @# @@~a
The tax experts believe that this feature should be
removed and until it is DONE the period of readusment
may be long and drawn out affair.