Latest / Chuck Douglas / More With Franklin County Auditor Michael Stinziano

Transcript

More With Franklin County Auditor Michael Stinziano · Chuck Douglas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm explaining basic math to the auditor right now. Chuck
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Dougan's in the power are on six ten Double TV
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: at eight two one ninety eight six but number eight
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: two one dou WTV and Michael Stinciano is your Franklin
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: County auditor.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: He uh, there's a.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: There's a pretty good chance he will be again after
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the November election because he's, uh, you know, he's not
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: being challenged, which you know there that's a whole other thing.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Not that I necessarily want him challenge, but I'm just
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: so sick of unchallenged. But we had was it eight
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I think it was eight judges on the ballot here
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: in the primary, and my my ward that there there
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: wasn't There was no application filed. The people who wear
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: robes and tell you whether or not you're going to
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: pay a fine or go to jail or have to
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: pick up after your dog or whatever. Eight judge ships,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: nobody even bothered a file. That's sad, man, and it sudden.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: While I don't necessarily want him beaten, I just like
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to see some more activity. I'd like to see more
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: people stop, stop griping and complaining and get out there
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: and and you know, try to become part of the process,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: build some bridges. As I said, I've had I've had
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: stint Siano signs in my yard a few times, and
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I would I'd be willing to bet if I were
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: stupid enough to be trying to run per judge or something,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I'd probably have a sign in his yard. Because we're
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: normal people. Neither one of us are so uh so
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: ridiculously biased in any direction that we we can't have
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: a conversation, be talked to, talked with and and uh
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: dag gone it. We need more of that, but you
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: got to get involved before we could even take a
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: step toward it. So just consider that that's my little lecture.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Dog licensing is something else. No, I'm gonna compliment you.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: You always do.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna call you last. The dog license thing has
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: become so blasted smooth now that I just I don't
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: even know how I did the thing online. And you know,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and my little Loopa, everybody knows she died on January fifth.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: So I just got her license and then she passed away,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: and it came in the mail like three days later,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and so I was very sad. And when we got
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: another dog gie, and I didn't know how to remove
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Loopa from my so I called your office, and as usual,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I got an answer. I think it was the third
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: ring when it got picked up from a very friendly
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: person who was very helpful and led me through how
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to take her off of there so I wouldn't get
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: notices for her anymore, and how to add the new dog.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: And I did that and it was I think three days. Boom,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: there's the new license for the new family member. That
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: is just so efficient it scares me. I wish every
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: aspect of government ran like that.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: We have a lot of talented people on the Auditor's office,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: so appreciate you sharing that. And dog license is one
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: of the unique things county auditors get to do.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: But we're going to do the best we can.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: And your people are always helpful and deficient at stuff.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I've never called and felt like I was getting somebody
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: who hated their job. They're friendly. You should take pride.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I mean the kind of people that are working for you.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: That's a reflection on you and how you run the ship,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and they reflect well.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: On I remind them we're working for the taxpayers of
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Franklin County. It's not me, someone else's name will be
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: on the website. Someone else will issue dog licenses as
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: the chief dog licenser, but their opportunity to impact and
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: make a difference for the business of residence frank County
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: since here and again, wonderful members of the office.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Now, to be honest, how much hate mail do you
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: get from people going, well, I gotta get my dog license,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: make my neighbor licensees cats?
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: I would say about fifty percent of the dog license
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: that was on Why not cats?
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: And that is a curiosity. I mean, why cats are
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: not required to be licensed is beyond me. You would
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: think when they said dogs, they would have said cats too,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: just because the two go together.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: It was a public health rebies concern back in the day,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: and so because of the desire for rabies vaccination, that's
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: why dogs.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: And not cats.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Cats can't get rabies.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: They don't know, but I am not.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: I'm just saying, there's just be a cat license and
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: they're all over the place.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes they are.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Now while I'm thinking about this, we just mentioned rabies.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Do we have any clinics coming up already? Do you
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: know of any? Because we you and I talk about
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: this all the time too, that when the Humane Society
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: does theirs. The line reaches to Toledo.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: There have been a few in the offices participated in
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: reminding folks of both the obligation but other services of
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: the Auditor's Office. But I did not come prepared with
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: any off the top of my head. But I know
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: in the last couple of weeks we participated with Plumbus
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Humane on a few but.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: We were having problems for a couple of years there
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: with getting the vets that we're willing to volunteer to
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: come out and do them, because j I don't I
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: gone a couple of times, and I think like five
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: dollars or ten dollars or something like that, which which
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: is great, especially if you have multiple animals. But you know,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: these these vets and and vets assistants and so forth
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: are not getting paid. It's all a volunteer thing. Is
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Is the level of participation picking up now or is
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: it still kind of Do I need to yell at
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: some vets on.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: The ladder side? All right, I wouldn't say it has
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: picked up. It is not as robust as it was
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: a decade ago.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Zach make a note tomorrow night, spend an hour yelling
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: at veterinarians until they volunteer. Not a problem, thank you.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: He's so he's cooperative when it comes to yelling. Tell me,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: tell me other stuff about the outers office. We I
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: haven't talked to you. I haven't had you in here.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: It's been a year and a half at least.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: What else is going to have been focused?
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: To the caller's point on advocating to the General Assembly
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: for a number of what we call menu of options
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: on property tax reform, it continues to be the number
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: one concern we hear from folks. Continuing to modernize the
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: office though, so we're leaving it better than we found it,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: some outdated systems and working through that process that is
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: a partnership with the treasurer or the Recorder's office. But
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: really just advocating on behalf of what we hear from
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: property owners being concerns title fraud, easier processes and understanding
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: when they do file titles and making sure they're aware
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: if there's anything that goes askew. Just what we do
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: in the Ounor's office under our responsibilities.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Have you pulled the plug on the Saturday morning? Things
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen you pop up on my Facebook quite
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: a while where you go out and be at the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: library community hours.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: I was just out at a coffee shop than Roaldsburg today.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Why am I used to get all the time?
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: I don't know. So it has evolved a little bit.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: During COVID when we had to be virtual, we did
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: get a lot more eyeballs and participation. And so twice
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: a month will be virtual office hours, so you can
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: join a Facebook live and we'll provide office updates kind
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: of what's coming up this month. So it's a lot
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: of border revision clinics, homestead clinics. Eventually it's going to
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: be property value review sessions. And then in person. Had
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: three people stop by today at a coffee shop and
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: could fix two of the issues on the spot and
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: one of them I gotta do.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: A little research for.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I'm happy that there were three there. I used to
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: gripe about that on your behalf all the time too.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: You would.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I'd see he'd show up at a library. You know,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I'll be at Lindon, I'll be at Hilltop or whatever.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Saturday morning, nine am. There he is. He's got a
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: kid under one arm, a dog on a leash, and
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: trying to balance a bottle of water. As he say,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: and nobody showed and that made me so mad, like
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: you've got somebody who's they're coming out here to be
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: accountable to you, and you don't even.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Bother to show up.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I'm surprised you're still doing it.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Honestly, I love doing it. So today was actually the
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: eight hundred and twenty sixth WOW.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Every week, every week we're doing it, and again two
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: of them are now virtual, but it's opportunity. We'll still
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: take questions, addressing and all things that we can. And
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: then I always encourage people. You don't have to wait
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: till those community hours. You can email me auditor stands
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: on a at frank Kenneo, Ohio dot gov call my
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: cell phone anytime six one four two nine nine two
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: two four. We will do anything we can as best
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: we can, and the Auditor's Office is limiting that it
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: has to be part of the duties.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: And responsibilities as prescribed under a high law.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: So a lot of that advocacy is going back to
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: my old colleagues and people I worked with in General Assembly,
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: asking them to please update homestead, please mind some tax relief.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: And if you're not taking that, by the way, you know,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: if you're old and decrepit, like me, or like Charlie.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: It was on the phone there a while ago, Charlie,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: don't frown at your radio. You're decrepit, you know it.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: If you're not taking the homestead deduction, why what is
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: six sixty two and a half or sixty two when
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: you're sixty two years of age and then you can
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: apply for that homestead deduction it is sixty five? Is
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: sixty five?
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: Then economic age? There's an economic piece as well, so
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: about forty.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Thousand, okay, and then you've also got the two percent
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: owner occupant credit.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: So that's going to be changing. That is something that
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: General simply did.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: So starting one one twenty seven, the owner occupied credit
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: is going to increase, but non owner occupied is getting eliminated.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: And they're taking portions of the tax holiday to help
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: offset and pay for this. So the General Assembly did
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: pass four pieces of property tax reform. You will hear
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: them over the next three to four years. Say they
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: have created billions of dollars in savings in Franklin County.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: The biggest piece of that savings has to do with
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: a twenty mil floor issue. We do not have a
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: twenty mil floor issue. That is more of a one
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: to one. So when your value goes up thirty percent,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: your property taxes were likely going up thirty percent. That
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: doesn't exist in Franklin County. They're going to see the
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: biggest savings in Franklin County with the owner occupied tax
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: credit and a couple other things.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: You might get about two pizzas a month in savings, not.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Billions like you're going to hear statewide, but owner occupied
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: it's going.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: To go up.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: But that's going to be a great selling point again
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: for Franklin County once the crap does actually start to
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: happen with Intel and Facebook and all that stuff. You know,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: why why buy in Licking County when you can get
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: lower property taxes on a home of compara will value
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: in Franklin County. That's going to be a selling point here.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: And so you know we talked about the valuation. One
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: thing we have on with the valuation, we have our
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: know your Home Value website and you can go type
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: in the auditor's value and see the impact that's going
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: to have in your current taxing district. I don't want
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: people just to believe me when I say your value
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: can go up taxes go down, value down, tax up.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: You can plug it in. Look at the formula with
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: the caveat.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: We don't have the implementation of the new legislation, and
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: I don't know what's going to be on the ballot
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: that will also have an impact. But say nothing's on
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: the ballot, your property taxes should decrease on the owner
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: if you're getting the owner occupied credit. But you got
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: to make sure you're getting that credit. To where we
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: started this conversation.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: And what's that going up to?
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: I believe over the three years it ultimately gets to
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: ten percent.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, well big one. That beats the snot out
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: of two percent, doesn't it. That's nice.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: Well it's still just ten percent, but it's yeah, but
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: something is better than nothing.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Some pizzas a month is better than not getting anything.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: And that'll that will be seen the first step of
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: it on what your July bill in twenty seven when
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: you get right, okay, well that's good dog gattity brot. Yes,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: I had no idea they had even done this, which
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: is great. And again, you know, if you've got the
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: you're older like Charlie, and I'm going to keep Charlie's
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: gonna be the oldest person in Columbus when I get
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: done with him. But if you qualify for that that
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: homestead exemption and you've got the higher owner, that's that's
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: gonna be very nice.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: But Charlie's not wrong either.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: For those older residents that have lived in these communities,
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: they've paid for kids to go through the schools, they
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: probably paid for supported their grandkids to go through the schools.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: They've won the race.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: We don't need to continue to be property taxing them
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: and never have anyone feel like they're getting property tax
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: out their neighborhood. That's an area that in Franklin County
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: we continue to advocate for. We were able to look
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: to West Virginia for models, Florida for other models, but
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: the General Assembly has not come around yet to making that.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: So it's a nice idea, but I mean the whole
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: concept of a public education, of publicly funded education, we
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: got to get everything right before we start taking away
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the burden. The fixes have to be in place. And yeah,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: you've raised your kids, and maybe you've raised grandkids, and
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: you worked all those years and so forth. But if
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: we take everybody who fits into that category and they
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: no longer have to pay taxes into the education system.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: That means that everybody who still is out here working
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: is going to have to pay a whole lot more.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: And you know as well as I do, when gasoline
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: is going up and down in utilities, you know AEP
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: doesn't have trouble coming to you for another rate hike
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: every fifteen minutes. They didn't do us any favor when
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: they took municipal water from quarterly to monthly billing. As
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: far as I'm concerned, we're not keeping up. If you
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: look at the cost of everything, the utilities, the rent,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the mortgage, the groceries and so forth. If that's all
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: up eighteen percent over what it was two years ago,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: and your wages have not gone up at least eighteen
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: percent over what they were two years ago, you're behind.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: It's that simple. Now. If you take those people who
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: are out there working and they're behind over and then
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: you say, by the way, we need to increase your
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: contribution to the education tax, you know how many people
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: are gonna head for somewhere else. I mean, seriously, the
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: last thing we want to do is lose a productive population.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: So you've got to get the fixes in place before
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: we start swinging that axe. You're looking at me like, man,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: you get serious sometimes, don't you try.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I'm right there with you, all right.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I appreciate. When I started doing talk radio, he was
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: my very first guest, and he's always answered and said sure,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: I'll come back. Sometimes I gotta wait on him, but
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: he always comes in. What I call it, I appreciate it.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Franklin County Auditor Michael Stinsey. I know you can actually
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: go to Franklin County Auditor dot up and there's links
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: to every thing he talked about, and you can calculate
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: taxes and see where your money's going and all that
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: kinds of wonderful stuff. Unless you're that because he hasn't
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: paid property taxes in like twenty five years. You want
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: to go pet go where his house being repossessed?
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: The pull that's uh, that'd be the treasure, not the auditor.