The Delaware County Commissioners today voted to renew a 0.5-mill property-tax rollback they originally enacted a year ago. The one-year renewal will provide a total of $6.5 million in tax relief to property owners in the county.
“With property tax values increasing this year, we wanted to provide some property-tax relief,” said Commissioner Jeff Benton, president of this year’s Board of Commissioners. “Thankfully, because of the County’s strong financial position and excellent fiscal management, we are able to provide this rollback, while maintaining our excellent services and continuing to fund our planned road improvements and new facilities.”
Commissioner Gary Merrell said: “In this inflationary environment, we believe it is important to provide some modest relief to the benefit of our taxpayers. As I said last year, it is my hope that all residents will benefit — directly or indirectly — from this reduction, which is possible because of our fiscally conservative policies.”
During the current tax year, a savings of $4.8 million was made possible through the original 0.5-mill rollback. Today’s resolution continues that rollback. It will provide an additional $1.7 million in tax relief for Delaware County property owners in the next tax year, resulting in a total savings of $6.5 million.
Commissioner Barb Lewis added, “We received positive feedback last year about the value of this reduction to our property owners. It was an excellent idea then and continues to be an excellent idea now.”
County Auditor George Kaitsa, who has been involved in structuring the rollback initiative, said, “I applaud the leadership demonstrated by the Board of Commissioners with their decision to continue to provide this tax savings for the taxpayers of Delaware County.”