The commissioners had previously reinstated the county portion of property taxes that were not collected in 2022 to resume collection in 2023 when the 2023 tax budget was prepared in July.
Last year, the commissioners approved a $47 million property tax holiday for 2022 that they said would lessen the impact of an average 17% property value hike from a mandated reassessment done in 2021.
Commissioner David Young said through the commissioners fiscal conservatism in good economic times and bad, they amassed a budget carryover of around $50 million last year.
Young said that robust fund balance, coupled with $46 million the county received in federal American Rescue Plan funds resulted in the county being “incredibly flush with cash.”
“When the government gave us the $46 million (in ARPA funds), we decided to give it to the most important people we knew, the taxpayers of Warren County,” he said. “So we decided to do a one-time tax holiday. We’re not reducing your tax rates, we’re not putting on, taking it off or anything like that, we simply didn’t collect those taxes (due in 2022).”
In 2022, the county did not collect on its portion of property taxes of approximately $24 million. In addition, the Developmental Disabilities and Senior Services boards also granted a one-time tax holiday. Because of those decisions not to collect those property taxes owed, that enabled property owners to receive a one-time reduction of around $151 per $100,000 of voted millage.
The county receives about $79 per $100,000 in home value annually, the DD Board collects around $46 and senior services $30, officials said.
Young said county property taxes collected in 2023 should go back to where they should have been had the taxes been collected in 2022.
As the collection for the county property taxes will resume in 2023, the five-year 0.25% piggyback sales tax collection for the new county jail ends on Dec. 31 and will return to the previous sales tax rate of 6.75%, said Martin Russell, deputy county administrator.
The new $56.5 million jail and sheriff’s office headquarters was completed in October of 2021, on time and $1.5 million under budget, officials said.
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