Latest / Chuck Douglas / Franklin County Auditor Michael Stinziano

Transcript

Franklin County Auditor Michael Stinziano · Chuck Douglas

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  Speaker 1: Greeting saluations. Welcome my friends to another edition of the
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  Speaker 1: Power Hour on six ten double UTV, and I'm Chuck Douglas.
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  Speaker 1: You know who you are, and we take it from there.
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  Speaker 1: We get one hour together, which means I talk really
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  Speaker 1: fast and you must listen even faster. My number eight
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  Speaker 1: two one nine eight eight six eight two one double
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  Speaker 1: UTV in a one eight hundred and six to ten DOUBLETV.
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  Speaker 1: And about two weeks from now, I think, yeah, closer
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  Speaker 1: took Billy is June ninth, I think is the date
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  Speaker 1: we're talking about the new valuations. And you know how
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  Speaker 1: much I love property tax The new valuations are coming
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  Speaker 1: in for Franklin County homes and other real estate. And
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  Speaker 1: I will advise you before we even get started that
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  Speaker 1: I have a guest in the studio. He is our
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  Speaker 1: Franklin County auditor, Michael Stinciano. And the auditor's job is
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  Speaker 1: to keep track of the money. He does not set
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  Speaker 1: the taxes, He does not bill you for the taxes.
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  Speaker 1: He does not come to your door and go pay
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  Speaker 1: your excuse. He just keeps the record. I just I
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  Speaker 1: like to get that straight before I ever turn on
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  Speaker 1: a microphone with you, because I don't want people calling up.
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna come down there and tell you what he
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  Speaker 1: did wrong, because you're not You don't do anything except
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  Speaker 1: you're the accountant basically.
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  Speaker 2: Accountant, and we do the valuation piece, so we are
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  Speaker 2: part of the formula. But everything you started with is
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  Speaker 2: absolutely correct. We don't send the bill, we don't set
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  Speaker 2: the rate. We do the calculation as Ohio Wall requires.
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  Speaker 1: But people hate you anyway, and it's probably you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's a catch twenty two. When things are good, values
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  Speaker 1: go up, and when values go up, the taxes go up,
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  Speaker 1: because there's more to tax is what it comes down to.
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  Speaker 1: When things are bad. Uh, you know, the values don't
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  Speaker 1: necessarily go down. But that's why you've got that process
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  Speaker 1: where people can come and actually speak to you. And
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  Speaker 1: a lot of times that you personally that attends these
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  Speaker 1: meetings and they say, look, my house is not worth this,
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  Speaker 1: and the county takes a look at it says, oh,
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  Speaker 1: you know what, you're right. We we got a little
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  Speaker 1: zealous on that when we're going to bring it down
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  Speaker 1: a little bit. But you know the fact that we
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  Speaker 1: Columbus has a thriving real estate market in spite of itself.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes is both a good thing and a bad thing,
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  Speaker 1: and that's got to be a heck of a conundrum
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  Speaker 1: for you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of the discussions we have with people.
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  Speaker 2: You want your property value to go up. Where they
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  Speaker 2: get frustrated is the correlation of how values and taxes
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  Speaker 2: may be impacted. So your value can go up, your
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  Speaker 2: taxes actually can go down depending on what you're voting on.
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  Speaker 2: So in twenty twenty three, when we had historic value increases,
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  Speaker 2: on average across Franklin County, values went up forty one percent,
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  Speaker 2: but for two levees, one of which was a City
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  Speaker 2: of Columbus school levee, fifty percent of all property taxes
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  Speaker 2: would have been flatter decrease. But once voters approve that,
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  Speaker 2: that took our fifty percent number down to eight percent.
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  Speaker 3: And so that's why people.
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  Speaker 2: Both need to pay attention to their property value as
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  Speaker 2: well as what's on their ballot because that is having
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  Speaker 2: a big impact on what they'll see ultimately on the
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  Speaker 2: property tax bill.
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  Speaker 1: And it's we still not everybody does it. I think
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  Speaker 1: probably the majority of the counties in Ohio do it.
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  Speaker 1: The taxing interrears thing is there is there a strategy
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  Speaker 1: of some sort behind that or is it just the
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  Speaker 1: way it's always been done so we don't change it.
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  Speaker 3: So the best way it ever has been described.
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  Speaker 2: When you go to a nice meal, you don't pay
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  Speaker 2: the bill before you consume the dinner. So paying your
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  Speaker 2: taxes and arrears, you're essentially paying for the services after
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  Speaker 2: you've received them. They catching that though, as if a
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  Speaker 2: new levee comes on, those entities typically will collect immediately
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  Speaker 2: without that one year in arrears. But that's why we
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  Speaker 2: collect in arrears, that you're receiving the service and now
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  Speaker 2: paying for the services that you got day.
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  Speaker 1: You and I have talked about it before, and we're
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  Speaker 1: starting to see. I know builders a lot. I get
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  Speaker 1: a lot of the real estate emails for the builders
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  Speaker 1: are just doing everything they can possibly do to stimulate
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  Speaker 1: their business. One of the things that I think contributed heavily,
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  Speaker 1: especially back in the late nineties and going into the
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  Speaker 1: early two thousands, with the problem with people losing their
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  Speaker 1: houses the new builds, that arrears thing catches up with
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  Speaker 1: you because when you have your first year of mortgage payments,
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  Speaker 1: it's based on you know, two hundred dollars for a
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  Speaker 1: vacant lot, and then in year two, it's based on
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  Speaker 1: your four hundred and seventy five thousand dollars home. So
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  Speaker 1: your mortgage payment goes up tremendously because suddenly you're paying,
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  Speaker 1: you know, six thousand dollars in property taxes as opposed
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  Speaker 1: to two hundred dollars in property taxes. That still is
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  Speaker 1: not a mandatory disclosure to people. Is there anything we
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  Speaker 1: can do to make that right.
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  Speaker 2: Other than getting the General Assembly to prescribe and get
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  Speaker 2: it right? There's nothing but the Audit Treasure is going
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  Speaker 2: to follow what Ohio law requires, and so there isn't
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  Speaker 2: that catch or that opportunity for that education disclosure piece.
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  Speaker 2: We get a lot of questions, and it's always frustrated,
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  Speaker 2: and it's not until people get that property tax bill
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  Speaker 2: that they're trying to figure out what just happened. At
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  Speaker 2: that point, they've missed opportunities to engage Treasure Auditor's office
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  Speaker 2: on what the time is.
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  Speaker 3: Going to look like when the do dates.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe all the things that you can prepare for before
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  Speaker 2: you get that bill from the Treasure, not the Auditor,
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  Speaker 2: the Treasure.
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  Speaker 1: The precursors. I'm sure that I'm sure that you we
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  Speaker 1: don't know what the final numbers are until we get
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  Speaker 1: the final numbers. Are you seeing any indicators now do
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  Speaker 1: you want to do you want to kind of prepity
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  Speaker 1: minds for what's coming on the ninth of June.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So, on average cross County, we're seeing about a
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  Speaker 2: ten percent residential increase. Commercial properties, depending on the property class,
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  Speaker 2: on average is about seven percent, although some classes are
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  Speaker 2: going to be about thirty percent. And it's just the
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  Speaker 2: demand continues to outpace what you see both across Ohio
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  Speaker 2: and across the country, and so we will continue.
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  Speaker 3: To have increases.
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  Speaker 1: I'm guessing on the commercial properties the lower numbers are
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  Speaker 1: probably downtown, is that correct?
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  Speaker 2: Not necessarily, it depends where and what the project is.
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  Speaker 2: So it was a weird quirk like six years ago
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  Speaker 2: funeral homes or skyrocketing in value, then why But they
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  Speaker 2: have leveled out so they have some stabilization. But it
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  Speaker 2: was always a quirk of what else are you going
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  Speaker 2: to use that property for? It's got unique features, but
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  Speaker 2: it was one of the higher ends. It's more of
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  Speaker 2: the warehouse commercial space. That's where outside developers are both
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  Speaker 2: building speck, getting it up and ready quickly and getting
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  Speaker 2: a pretty good return. So it's mostly the warehouse is
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  Speaker 2: where we're seeing the highest jump.
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  Speaker 1: No, we see, I mean Downtown's had a couple of
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  Speaker 1: I mean the Key Bang building here most recently auction
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  Speaker 1: what was it five point one mil or something like that.
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  Speaker 1: The real estate alone should be worth that. And then
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  Speaker 1: over there that gravity project one of them did it.
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  Speaker 1: I don't even know if it hit a million, very
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  Speaker 1: small price at auction that it fetched. And then of
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  Speaker 1: course we've got the spaghetti warehouse property, which may become something,
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  Speaker 1: may not at this point, but Downtown has seen some
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  Speaker 1: depressingly low numbers when it comes to commercial transactions. That's
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  Speaker 1: why I was just kind of assuming maybe the values
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  Speaker 1: there were not not holding up as well as some
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  Speaker 1: of the suburban areas.
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  Speaker 3: I would agree they're not holding up as well as
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  Speaker 3: the suburban area.
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  Speaker 1: See, he's not going to step in anything. He's being careful.
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  Speaker 1: This is this is our Frankly County editor, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: Mike Stenzieno. And you know, and people go, hey, Democrat,
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  Speaker 1: what you got him at? Yes, yes, he's a Democrat.
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  Speaker 1: He's one of the few Democrats. It gets a yard
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  Speaker 1: sign at my house when he runs runs for election,
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  Speaker 1: which he's doing again this time.
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  Speaker 2: It is this November, right, I am all auditors are
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  Speaker 2: on the ballot this November, all eighty eight eighty six,
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  Speaker 2: so two counties or county executive models. So you have
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  Speaker 2: eighty six independently elected auditors with kind of the county
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  Speaker 2: commissioner structure to Cuyahoga being the largest or county executive
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  Speaker 2: model where they don't elect a county auditor or a treasurer,
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  Speaker 2: recorder or commissioner. They have a county executive, they have
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  Speaker 2: a sheriff, but it's a different dynamic.
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  Speaker 1: I just learned something I never knew that. I never
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  Speaker 1: knew that. I don't know how you this is something
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  Speaker 1: that bugs me, and you know it bugs me at
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  Speaker 1: all levels of government. The city of Columbus was notorious
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  Speaker 1: for a while, and I constantly railed about that. But
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  Speaker 1: it is a county wide issue too. I'm talking about
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  Speaker 1: the tax incentives that are given to so many of
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  Speaker 1: these companies. For the first problem is that we've got
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  Speaker 1: no backtracking process, which has bothered me since day one.
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  Speaker 1: We're gonna build this building and have four hundred jobs,
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  Speaker 1: and they hire like one hundred and eight people and
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  Speaker 1: lay off ninety of them, but nobody goes back to
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  Speaker 1: c did they actually keep their word? In the meantime,
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  Speaker 1: we grant them incentives. We won't pay property taxes for
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  Speaker 1: ten years or fifteen years on the improvements that you
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  Speaker 1: make to this property when you go in and so forth.
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  Speaker 1: That's come back to bite way too many communities. Then
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  Speaker 1: I guess I have to blame the legislature at this point,
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  Speaker 1: what used to be something you could www your way
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  Speaker 1: to is now not out there for you anymore. And
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  Speaker 1: I don't know where you stand on this. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: are we are we better off not knowing something? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: is this being hidden from us for our own good?
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  Speaker 1: Because that's how I feel they're doing. They're hiding information
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  Speaker 1: we should know.
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  Speaker 2: So one of the unique responsibilities of the County Auditor,
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  Speaker 2: along with dog licensure, is we are the chair of
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  Speaker 2: all tax and centerve review councils. So any municipality for
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  Speaker 2: each county, the county auditor chairs a meeting. So we
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  Speaker 2: have about twenty three municipalities across Franklin County that give
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  Speaker 2: out a tax incentive, and the Auditor's office during my
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  Speaker 2: time as auditor, we have really leaned in to.
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  Speaker 3: Make that information public. We have a tax incentive hub.
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  Speaker 2: You can look at any incentive that's given the status
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  Speaker 2: what they report annually. That's what the Turk is reviewing annually.
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  Speaker 2: To what you've alluded to, though the General Assembly maybe
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  Speaker 2: unbeknownst to the majority or maybe they knew, included turks,
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  Speaker 2: and the information that we review as now no longer
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  Speaker 2: publicly available, and I think that is a big mistake.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's taxpayer dollars. It's having an impact on
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  Speaker 2: every tax payer, and so having it public available, accessible
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  Speaker 2: and providing that sunshine's important and so making it no
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  Speaker 2: longer a public record is very concerning.
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  Speaker 1: I would have to say all of our auditors around
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  Speaker 1: the state are probably in agreement with you, If not,
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  Speaker 1: the vast majority should be. Is there any is there
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  Speaker 1: any leverage there? I mean, is there an auditors association
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  Speaker 1: where you can go to the legislature and say, maybe
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  Speaker 1: you did it by accident, but you screwed this up
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  Speaker 1: and we need to fix it.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, and yes, so there is a Ohio audis Association,
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  Speaker 2: and we are going back to the Journal Assembly and
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  Speaker 2: inquiring why Turks specifically were included in this now no
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  Speaker 2: longer public record. So a lot of people thought had
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  Speaker 2: to do with non disclosures with data centers. Some of
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  Speaker 2: the discussion as it was not data center directed, but
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  Speaker 2: I don't think it was a amendment into a bill
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  Speaker 2: that had to do with high school name image and
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: likeness sports athletes. So there isn't even a real nexus.
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  Speaker 2: But it's in there. It's current law, and no auditor
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  Speaker 2: or any economic development director in Missipality wants to get
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  Speaker 2: charged with the misdemeanor for disclosing information that is now
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  Speaker 2: deemed not a public record.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and those data centers are the reason I guess
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  Speaker 1: I'm so fired up about not not only but you know,
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  Speaker 1: how long have we been holding our breath for Intel
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  Speaker 1: and Facebook and Google and all these projects that were
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: happening happening and hang on a minute, you know what,
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  Speaker 1: what did we give away for something that doesn't seem
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  Speaker 1: to be developing on the schedule we were told it
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: was going to develop, and that I think the people
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  Speaker 1: ought to know