County Commissioners and Budget Commission Plan Joint Meeting During
August 17 Budget Hearing to Discuss Possible Property Tax Reduction Methods
Budget Commission Meeting – August 3, 2026
Meeting Details: The Geauga County Budget Commission met in Regular Session on Monday, August 3, 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, and the agenda was provided in advance. 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 ADP (Automatic Data Processing) Chief Deputy Administrator Frank Antenucci (substituting for Auditor Chuck Walder).
Staff Attendance: Deputy Auditors Tina Kloski and Jennifer Hess, Auditor’s Office Chief Operations Officer Pam McMahan, and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Rine (virtual).
County Staff: Geauga County Budget and Finance Manager Adrian Gorton.
Members of the Public: Geauga County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board Member Kathy Johnson and this LWV Geauga Observer attended virtually.
The meeting was called to order at 10:00 am.
Minutes: No Minutes were presented for approval. Budget Commission Minutes can be found here when posted.
Annual Reorganizational Meeting
The Budget Commissioners voted to defer the naming of the Chair, Vice Chair, and meeting alternates until the Regular Business portion of the August 17 Budget Hearings. Mr. Flaiz pointed out that this is permissible since it does not have to be done until September 1. It was determined that the meeting notices for the Budget Hearings on August 17 and 18 did not include Regular Business, so the Budget Commissioners voted to reissue the special hearing notices for both August 17 and 18 to include Regular Business. Mr. Flaiz recommended that the staff always include Regular Business on all meeting notices.
Regular Business
The Budget Commission unanimously voted to adopt and certify the distribution of 2027 Undivided Local Government Funds. Observer Note: The total amount of the distribution was $2,354,265.00, of which 38% ($894,620.70) goes to the County and the remainder is distributed to the Townships ($1,235,518.27) and Municipalities ($224,126.03) in the County proportionately based upon population according to the most recent Federal Census. Mr. Flaiz explained that changing the formula used to determine the Undivided Local Government Funds distribution would require “a certain percentage” of the entities to approve it, along with the approval of the largest municipality in the county (Chardon City) and the County Commissioners.
Mr. Gorton said that the County Commissioners are hoping to discuss the Undivided Local Government Funds distribution during the County’s 2027 Budget Hearing on August 17, which is planned to be a joint meeting of the Budget Commission and the County Commissioners. Mr. Flaiz noted that in the past the Commissioners have considered forgoing the County’s portion of Undivided Local Government Funds and redistributing them to the other political subdivisions. Mr. Gorton asked if the Undivided Local Government Funds distribution had to be approved at this Budget Commission meeting. Ms. Rine said she wasn’t certain about the approval date requirements, but she said she thought that changing the formula had to occur before budget submissions are due (July 20). It was determined that the window for changing the Undivided Local Government Funds formula for this year has closed, but the Commissioners and the Budget Commission can still discuss the matter on August 17 regarding future changes.
Mr. Flaiz stated that changing the formula such that the County’s portion is divided among the other entities is challenging because “there's certain political subdivisions that could really use this money, and maybe some other ones that don't need the money, and some of the ones that don't need the money would be getting the larger amounts of the money.” Mr. Hitchcock said “it's up to the townships and villages to determine their needs for those monies, and they could in turn have an opportunity to return those monies back to the taxpayers.” Mr. Flaiz voiced another concern about changing the distribution: “If we change it, then if you ever wanted to change it back, the city would have to approve, which would essentially be taking money out of their pocket…. The county would be at the mercy of the city to ever get this money back….” Mr. Gorton asked if it would be possible to change the distribution for a set amount of time and then it would automatically revert back to the County receiving its share. There was uncertainty about whether or not this was a possibility, and Ms. Rine and Mr. Flaiz agreed to look into it.
The Budget Commission unanimously voted to adopt and certify the distribution of 2027 Public Library Funds (which includes township park districts under Ohio Revised Code 5747.48) as follows:
|
Library/Subdivision
|
Amount
|
% Grand Total
|
|
Geauga Library
|
$1,742,387.83
|
84.63%
|
|
Burton Library
|
$307,383.32
|
14.93%
|
|
Thompson Park
|
$2,264.71
|
0.11%
|
|
Russell 1545 Park
|
$2,264.71
|
0.11%
|
|
Russell Citizens Park
|
$2,264.71
|
0.11%
|
|
Chester Park
|
$2,264.71
|
0.11%
|
|
Grand Total
|
$2,058,829.99
|
100.0%
|
The Budget Commission voted to adopt 98% as the tax collection rate to be used in the 2027 budget preparation based on the recommendation of the County Treasurer.
The following Amendments were approved:
Reviewer Note: An explanation of the different types of funds in revenue certifications can be found
here.
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Chardon Local School District - Amendment #1. First Amendment for Fiscal Year 2026-2027. Observer Note: Schools operate on a July-June fiscal year, whereas most County entities operate on the January-December calendar year. $56,872,346.05 in the general fund, $5,969,516.94 in special revenue funds, $451,249.91 in debt service funds, $3,025,912.36 in capital project funds, $9,400,367.93 in internal service funds, and $146,905.60 in fiduciary funds for a total of $75,866,298.79.
Chardon Schools’ amendment certified the updated fund totals for the start of the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
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West Geauga Local School District - Amendment #1. First Amendment for Fiscal Year 2026-2027. $54,158,280.38 in the general fund, $2,891,010.49 in special revenue funds, $11,787,949.37 in capital project funds, $1,378,199.75 in enterprise funds, $332,067.10 in internal service funds, and $3,000.00 in fiduciary funds for a total of $70,550,507.09.
West Geauga’s amendment certified the updated fund totals for the start of the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
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Geauga County Public Library - Amendment #3. $13,627,727.42 in the general fund, $149,688.16 in special revenue funds, $1,637,932.42 in debt service funds, and $17,498,785.95 in capital project funds for a total of $32,914,133.95.
Geauga County Public Library’s amendment certified a decrease of $2,058,981.32 in fund 401 (capital project building and repair fund), bringing the amount in this fund to $0. It also certified an increase of this same amount ($2,058,981.32) in fund 402 (capital project building reserve fund).
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South Russell Village - Amendment #4. $2,173,817.44 in the general fund, $8,359,389.95 in special revenue funds, $2,205,388.26 in capital project funds, and $293,824.64 in fiduciary funds, for a total of $13,032,420.29.
South Russell’s amendment certified an increase in the general fund.
Other Business
2027 budget submissions have been received from all entities. Chester Park’s submission was not received until July 30, and the deadline was July 20. Observer Note: See more about this in the Public Comment section below. The budgets are undergoing review by the staff now and are being sent to the Budget Commissioners as the reviews are completed. Mr. Hitchcock and Mr. Antenucci indicated that most of the submissions that they have looked at so far are in good shape.
General Discussion
Mr. Gorton shared some of the topics the Commissioners are interested in discussing at the joint County Commissioners-Budget Commission meeting on August 17. He indicated that the Commissioners are again willing to suspend collection on the Job and Family Services (JFS) 0.5 mill Children’s Services levy as a property tax relief measure if the Commissioners and Budget Commission reach consensus on doing so. Observer Note: For background information, see the October 24, 2023 Budget Commission LWVG Observer Report. Mr. Gorton said that the County will have enough uncommitted revenue at the end of 2027 to make JFS whole if the levy is suppressed.
Mr. Gorton stated that the Commissioners would be interested in discussing lowering property taxes with corresponding increases in sales tax in Geauga. He indicated that “it's difficult to measure the impact that raising the sales tax could have” and noted it was possible that people might opt to buy high-dollar items outside the County if people perceive the sales tax to be too high. Mr. Antenucci said that Geauga’s sales tax level is low relative to surrounding areas so increased sales tax could be a possibility. Mr. Gorton said the exact amount of a possible sales tax increase has not been determined, though he noted that 7.25% seems to be pretty common in other Ohio counties. Observer Note: The sales tax in Geauga County is currently 6.75%, of which 5.75% is the state sales tax and 1.0% is the county sales tax. Mr. Flaiz noted that Geauga County gets many shoppers from outside Geauga because the tax rate in Geauga is lower than Cuyahoga’s (8.0%) and several big box stores in western Cuyahoga County have closed. Reviewer Note: See the Ohio County Sales and Use Tax Rate Map from the Ohio Department of Taxation effective October 31, 2025 for rates in nearby counties.
Mr. Gorton said that the Commissioners are considering creating a new levy reduction fund “where part of the inside millage could be diverted in order to reimburse any levies that were reduced and take it out of the general distribution of the general fund.” Mr. Flaiz said that was a good idea.
Discussion turned to qualified levies. Mr. Antenucci said that qualified levies get 12.5% of their funding from the State. Observer Note: Qualified levies are levies that were passed pre-2013 in Ohio. It was noted that the JFS has a qualified levy, and the Engineer’s Road levy is also qualified. Mr. Flaiz said “I'm just not in favor of suspending qualified levies because we're giving 12 and a half percent back to the state, and they thieve enough money from our residents.” Mr. Gorton said the Commissioners were interested in other levies that could be suppressed instead of suppressing the same Children’s Services levy each time, but the Budget Commissioners were not sure if there were any other unqualified levies available. It was stated that this information would be on the “levy sheet” at the Budget Hearings.
Mr. Gorton said that the County is doing some investigation of budgeting aids to use in conjunction with New World (Geauga County’s fiscal management software program) in order to improve the budgeting process. He said “to be honest, I'm going to be the hard sell on this because I've been around for a while, and New World was too difficult for many of the elected officials and department heads to use. And the decision was made to go to spreadsheets that I then put into New World, and I don't believe that the ClearGov is going to be any easier than a spreadsheet, but we are continuing to look at it.” Mr. Gorton said he would like to see additional options before committing to anything and asked Mr. Antenucci for assistance with reaching out to Tyler Technologies about their budgeting tools. Mr. Flaiz pointed out “the human cost of implementing things” and noted the challenges of training and passing on institutional knowledge when turnover occurs or new systems are implemented.
Mr. Flaiz praised Mr. Gorton’s budget presentation earlier this month. Observer Note: See the LWVG Observer Report on the June 30, 2026 County Commissioners Meeting for more information. Mr. Flaiz noted that unfilled positions in the county contribute to high carryover, specifically mentioning that “the Sheriff got fully funded for all those new positions January first. They're still not filled. You know, it's August, and that's not his fault. He's actually filled a lot faster than I thought he would. But on top of having to fill those new positions in a very difficult hiring environment for law enforcement, they've also had several retirements. You know, so he's going to have a huge amount of money left over in his budget.”
Mr. Gorton said that the County has several big projects coming up in the next few years, including the renovation of the old courthouse and the upgrade of the Sheriff’s 800 megahertz system. He said these projects are estimated to cost $7 million each, “so that's 14 million dollars that I'm going to have to come up with within the next three years.” Mr. Flaiz urged more communication from the Commissioners on future plans with large financial repercussions, such as the future sale of the 470 Center Street property in Chardon. He stated “if you want us (the Budget Commission) to be partners in financial planning, which I think statutorily we have to be, then the Commissioners need to tell us what's going on.” Mr. Gorton said that the Commissioners hope to have 470 Center Street on the market by the end of the year, with a caveat that the Senior Center will remain located there until July 2027.
Public Comment:
This Observer asked for clarification on which entity submitted its budget late this year. Mr. Flaiz said it was Chester Township Park. This Observer then asked if there was any consequence for the late submission. Mr. Antenucci said that Chester Township Park was in violation of Ohio Revised Code both for submitting their budget after the July 20 submission deadline and for not approving their budget before the July 15 approval deadline. Mr. Flaiz said this may be an audit issue in the future.
This Observer also requested a copy of all materials from this meeting, which were received via email on August 3, 2026.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:51 am.
Next Meeting: The next Budget Commission Meeting will be the Annual Tax Budget Hearings and Regular Business on August 17 & 18, 2026, both at 9:00 am in the Auditor's Appraisal Conference Room, 231 Main Street, Chardon. Virtual attendance for 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: Gail Roussey
Reviewer: Carol Benton
Submitted: August 5, 2026
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