FAQ: Why don't property taxes grow with inflation?
In Ohio, property taxes generally raise the same amount of money over time.
This stems from a state law enacted in 1976, which generally keeps property taxes from increasing with inflation or market values. (To read up on H.B. 820, there’s a good summary in this Education Tax Policy Institute brief).
But wait, you say - I know my property taxes are higher today than they were X years ago.
Unless you’ve just moved into your house, that’s undoubtedly true. But your total property tax includes all of the levies that have been approved over the years, whether they are for the city, the school district, Franklin County agencies or the zoo. Each of these would have affected your property taxes over a number of years.
How property taxes work (in general)
A school district determines it needs to raise $x million with a levy. They work with the Franklin County auditor's office to determine the millage necessary to raise that amount. For the upcoming levy, 9 mills = $5 million.
Each year, the levy raises that amount of money. As property values go up, the millage needed to collect that money goes down. This is why you see references to the "effective rate" on the Franklin County auditor's site.
The auditor's glossary of terms puts it this way: "EFFECTIVE RATE - Effective rate and reduction factor ensure that agencies don’t receive financial "windfall" as property values increase within a taxing district."
Example: In 2010, Bexley voters approved a 6.5 mill levy to raise about $3 million a year. If you look up your property using the auditor's tax estimator it will show the estimated cost of the upcoming levy as well as the existing taxes you pay. You'll note that the 2010 levy is now being collected at 5.349734 mills. The county has applied a "reduction factor" to the rate so that the levy collects the same amount of money ($3 million, in this case).
Now this is all correct at the macro level. Bexley properties are generating that total revenue for that 2010 operating levy.
There's one small thing to note about how your taxes, as an individual homeowner, might vary.
For any individual home, the amount you pay is a combination of the auditor's prediction of your market value and the effective rate.
We all pay the same effective rate, but your market value is a function of improvements to your house, how recently it was sold, what's going on in your particular neighborhood. A big addition, for instance, would raise the expected value of your house.
This is all to say that some parts of Bexley may have appreciated more than other parts, so those neighborhoods may have seen property values increase by more than other parts.
As part of that total revenue pie, these homes may pay more, but the entire community is paying the same total dollar value in property taxes - it's just distributed slightly differently throughout the community.
The bottom line
If you have lived in Bexley for a number of years, you will have seen your taxes increase because of any levy that passed during that time.
For those who have been here since 2010, your taxes went up with the 2010 school operating levy, for example, and also with the 2018 city road and sewer levy, and so forth. You can see all the taxes and the years they were passed in the auditor's tax estimator.