The confusing accounts emerging from the Lucas County Auditor’s Office are creating doubts among Lucas County residents whether any of the recent revaluations have validity.
The average property value increase — 29.5 percent — is shocking to many property owners. Some have seen percentage increases much higher than that.
Auditor Katie Moline started out by indicating that a contractor made a programming mistake that was brought to light only when hundreds of county residents raised informal objections to exorbitant increases in their property valuations.
According to the auditor, the mistake had to do with the grading of properties’ condition, with some of the grades erroneously elevated.
We learned about a week later that Ms. Moline, at least as of this past Thursday, has not brought the matter up with the contractor, even though her office has been dealing with the problem for months.
A vice president for the contractor hired for Lucas County’s valuation told The Blade, “... we only became aware of this situation last week when first contacted by the reporter. Since then, we have reached out multiple times to the auditor’s office requesting a meeting but have not received a response. Additionally, we have not been contacted by anyone in the auditor’s office of any programming error.”
This is extremely concerning. If a contractor was determined to have made a mistake that affected at least 346 properties — and probably many more — why would the auditor not immediately contact the contractor and insist the contractor correct the problem?
When it comes to the sticker shock many property owners are experiencing in this go-around, some perspective is necessary. The inflation that affected everything else we buy over the last three years did not exclude real estate. This was a six-year revaluation, so some significant recalculation is to be expected. Other counties in the same situation, such as Cuyahoga and Ottawa, saw higher average increases in the same period.
Furthermore, when valuations were last raised by previous auditor Anita Lopez, Ms. Lopez kept valuations so low that the state tax commissioner ordered valuations be raised — they settled on a countywide average of 9 percent. That was the first time a tax commissioner had done that in 25 years.
Still, if there was an error that contributed to higher than correct valuations, we don’t understand why the contractor wasn’t called in to fix said error.
Nor has the auditor provided documentation that the change in how properties are graded is associated only with the increases in the 346 properties that have so far come to light.
There may be many other instances of this error once the Board of Revision — the body charged with considering appeals to revaluations — completes its review.
The question has come up whether people should go ahead and pay their property tax even if they have reason to believe it will be lowered. Our advice is that anyone who has a property tax payment due by Jan. 31 should pay that bill and hope for a credit or refund later.
In announcing the final posting of the new values on Dec. 15, Ms. Moline said, “One of my cardinal values as an elected official is transparency.”
Transparency is not the word we would use to describe Ms. Moline’s communications about the botched valuations.
First Published January 26, 2025, 5:00 a.m.