Budget Commissioners Plan to Cover Senior Citizen Foreclosures and
New Money Levies at Final Property Tax Education Event on April 7
Budget Commission Meeting – March 16, 2026
Meeting Details: The Geauga County Budget Commission met in Regular Session on Monday, March 16, 2026 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. The meeting was in person with a virtual attendance option via MS Teams. To attend Budget Commission meetings virtually via MS Teams, email an invitation request to Pam McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.
Meeting Attendance: Prosecutor Jim Flaiz, Treasurer Chris Hitchcock, and Auditor Chuck Walder.
Staff Attendance: Deputy Auditors Tina Kloski and Kristen Sinatra, new Auditor’s Office employee Jennifer Hess, ADP (Automatic Data Processing) Chief Deputy Administrator Frank Antenucci, and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Rine (virtual).
County Staff: N/A.
Members of the Public: This LWV Geauga Observer (virtual).
The meeting was called to order at 10:03 am.
Minutes: Minutes from the Special Meetings on February 18 & 19, 2026 that were approved at the previous Budget Commission meeting were re-signed due to a spelling correction. The Minutes from the March 2, 2026 Regular Meeting were approved. Budget Commission Minutes can be found here when posted.
The following Revenue Certificates were approved:
Reviewer Note: An explanation of the different types of funds in revenue certifications can be found
here.
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Cardinal Local Schools - Amendment #2. $20,707,458.85 in the general fund, $1,987,269.70 in special revenue funds, $1,356,156.52 in debt service funds, $2,470,003.33 in capital project funds, $648,040.47 in enterprise funds, $78,661.95 in internal service funds, and $57,494.46 in fiduciary funds for a total of $27,305,085.28.
Cardinal’s amendment certified an increase in special revenue funds.
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Geauga County - Amendment #4. $62,179,557.81 in the general fund, $113,025,852.94 in special revenue funds, $5,217,541.26 in debt service funds, $1,145,055.59 in special assessment funds, $22,544,048.14 in capital project funds, $32,304,589.52 in enterprise funds, $1,751,515.64 in internal service funds, and $3,783,883.29 in fiduciary funds for a total of $241,952,044.19.
Geauga County’s amendment certified an increase in capital project funds.
The following previously approved Revenue Certificate was re-signed:
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Bainbridge Township - Amendment #2. $3,847,697.39 in the general fund, $20,653,137.90 in special revenue funds, $1,228,282.70 in debt service funds, $5,291,434.47 in capital project funds, and $2,273.70 in fiduciary funds for a total of $31,022,826.16.
Bainbridge’s amendment that was originally approved on March 2 had to be re-signed to correct an error. The additional revenue that was certified on March 2 in capital project funds had already been accounted for during Bainbridge’s budget process, so the additional funds ($500,000) were removed from the capital project funds total.
Other Business:
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A Geauga-Trumbull Solid Waste (GTSW) Cash Transfer in the amount of $7,145.00 from GTSW’s general fund to Geauga County’s general fund for the first quarter cost allocation was accepted by the Budget Commission. Mr. Flaiz explained that this was GTSW reimbursing the County Commissioners for certain services, such as IT.
Discussion:
Mr. Walder expressed his appreciation to Mr. Flaiz and Mr. Hitchcock for attending the March 10 property tax education session, and he reminded them that the next session would be on April 7 Observer Note: A video of the March 10 property tax education event is available here. More information about the April 7 event is available below in the Public Comment section.
Mr. Flaiz said that there seems to be a misconception about senior citizens being forcibly removed from their homes that came up at the March 10 event. Therefore, he and Mr. Hitchcock are going to “do a deep drive on the tax foreclosures that we’ve filed” to look into this. Mr. Flaiz said oftentimes what happens is that the property taxes aren’t paid after a senior passes away and then foreclosure occurs. He and Mr. Hitchcock both indicated that they thought that it was rare for a Sheriff Sale of a property to occur when a person who is actually living in the home is delinquent with their property tax payments. They will look into the records to get actual data in order to “clear the air” about seniors being foreclosed on at the next property tax education event. Mr. Flaiz said that they planned to do a five-year lookback at the records.
Mr. Walder said someone asked about the makeup of replacement levies for the last few years at the March 10 event. He said he now has those numbers as well as information on other new money levies such as renewals with an increase, and he will have that data available for the April 7 property tax education event.
Mr. Walder mentioned that bond holders have issued “a preliminary warning shot across the bow” by saying they may file lawsuits should property taxes be abolished. Observer Note: Read more about the possible lawsuits here.
Mr. Hitchcock said that he had seen a video with someone claiming that eliminating property taxes would not be a problem for schools because they could be funded by income taxes instead. It was noted that this would have to be approved by voters first. Mr. Walder wondered how large of an income tax would be needed to replace a school district’s property tax revenue. Whether or not school income taxes are capped at a certain maximum percentage was discussed, though there was uncertainty on if this was the case and if so what the maximum percentage is. Observer Note: According to the Ohio Department of Taxation, there is no percentage cap on school income taxes. More information is available here. The current income tax rates of all Ohio school districts that receive income taxes are available here; none are higher than 2.00%. In Geauga County, only Berkshire Schools currently have an income tax, which is 1.00% of earned income.
Mr. Walder said he was concerned that the Ohio Legislature has “no appetite to do any more” regarding property tax reform. He indicated that an Ohio Senator recently told him that “the temperature of the Senate is, ‘We've heard enough about this now, let's move on.’”
Mr. Flaiz told the other Budget Commissioners that Ms. Rine “did a great job” creating a request for the Ohio Supreme Court to review the District Court of Appeals decision regarding the Orwell-Trumbull pipeline tax delinquencies. He noted that Geauga was “on the losing end” of the Court of Appeals decision, meaning that the millions owed to Geauga entities due to tax delinquencies would not be collected. The new request to the State Supreme Court could potentially cause that decision to be revisited. Mr. Flaiz noted that the State Supreme Court takes on very few discretionary appeals like this. He said that briefs can be filed urging them to take up the appeal, and he indicated that some of Geauga’s school districts have banded together to have a law firm file a brief on their behalf. Mr. Flaiz said West Geauga and Berkshire were definitely a part of this effort, but he wasn’t sure if other Geauga districts were as well. Ms. Rine said that Portage County is a part of the request for the State Supreme Court review, but Lake County has dropped out of the process. Mr. Flaiz said Lake was least financially impacted by the tax delinquencies whereas Geauga was the most adversely affected. Ms. Rine said Geauga is owed over $12 million by the time the interest and penalties are factored in. Mr. Hitchcock praised the Prosecutor’s Office for their effort to recover this money and noted that there would be no further recourse should this latest attempt fail. Mr. Walder said that should this final effort fail, the process for officially wiping the tax delinquencies off the books would begin. Mr. Flaiz concurred. Reviewer Note: See the court opinion in this case here.
An email from a member of the public was shared with the Budget Commissioners. Mr. Flaiz noted that there has been litigation regarding the matters discussed in the email and advised the Budget Commissioners not to comment. Mr. Walder noted that the email will be part of the public record and therefore wanted to provide a little information on the context. He explained that the first topic of the email was Metzenbaum and concern about lack of public records from a nonprofit. The second topic was Cardinal Local Schools: Mr. Walder summarized that “a question exists about the ballot language of the levy that was passed in 2017 versus how that money is being collected and used. They cite a couple of newspaper articles and basically (are) requesting or asking if we (could) do some sort of investigation.” Mr. Walder then reiterated that the Budget Commissioners cannot comment on these topics and asked the staff to paraphrase what was said in their response to the email.
Mr. Walder pointed out that the Budget Commission will have the Levied Departments Budget Reviews at the next meeting on April 6. He clarified that “the reviews are (of) the levy amounts, not their budgets, per se.” Observer Note: County departments have their Budget Hearings before the County Commissioners once a year. Mr. Walder noted that they are navigating “an (unspecified) issue we have with the Health District.” Ms. Sinatra said that the Health District’s Budget Hearing is not until June 1. Mr. Walder acknowledged that but expressed that they still need to be starting the review process.
Public Comment:
This Observer introduced herself to new Auditor’s Office employee Jennifer Hess. Mr. Walder said this is her first day, and she will be sworn in as a Deputy Auditor later.
This Observer said that she will be the moderator for the April 7 tax education event and noted that the planning meeting for this event will be scheduled soon and that the aforementioned deep dive into foreclosures can be worked into the program. Reviewer Note: The final property tax education session will be April 7 at 7:00 pm at the Middlefield Library. The session is free, but registration is required. Register to attend at the following link: April 7 Middlefield Library Event Registration
This Observer also stated that there will be a LWVG Candidate Forum on April 9 at 6:30 pm (doors open at 6:00) at the Bainbridge Library in advance of the May 5 primary election. Observer Note: More information on the Candidate Forum is available here: www.lwvgeauga.org/candidateforums.
This Observer also requested a copy of all documents from the meeting, which were received via email on March 16, 2026.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:37 am.
Next Meeting: The next Budget Commission Meeting will be a Special Meeting for the Levied Departments Budget Reviews and regular business on Monday, April 6, 2026 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Appraisal Conference Room, 231 Main Street, Chardon. Virtual attendance for all Budget Commission meetings is available via Microsoft Teams by emailing an invitation request to Ms. McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.
Observer: Sarah McGlone
Editor: Carol Benton
Reviewer: Gail Roussey
Submitted: March 16, 2026
The League of Women Voters of Geauga is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. They do not support or oppose individual candidates or parties. Learn more about the LWVG at www.lwvgeauga.org.