Commissioners sign letter against state proposal for engineer licensure; advocate for property tax reform

Highland County commissioners Brad Roades, Terry Britton and David Daniels approved the issuing of two letters to Ohio senators and state representatives on unrelated matters during their Wednesday, May 28 meeting, as they reviewed potential changes regarding county engineers and property taxes. 

After hearing from Highland County Engineer Chris Fauber, commissioners agreed to sign a letter to Ohio legislators showing the county’s support of maintaining the current dual-licensure requirement for county engineers across Ohio.

According to the County Engineers Association of Ohio, “In the state of Ohio, in order to run for the position of County Engineer, the candidate needs to posses a license to be a Professional Engineer (P.E.) and Professional Surveyor (P.S.). All 88 Ohio counties currently have a dual-licensed County Engineer. 

“There has been speculation that Ohio lacks qualified candidates, despite the fact that 13 new County Engineers were just elected who all proudly have their dual-licensure in engineering and surveying. This speculation has led to some people pushing for the requirement for the County Engineer to be a licensed surveyor to be eliminated.”

The CEAO also wrote that “by filling two roles, they save time, money and resources,” a point that Fauber stressed in his report to commissioners.

“In a way, you get two jobs for one,” Fauber said. “There would be an additional cost associated to the county, the townships, everybody, because part of our job as a county engineer is to oversee the map office. As part of the map office, obviously, we review plats and surveys, and we make sure that our job there is to make sure that those are accurate, so that they're given to the auditor that he can tax correctly.”

Fauber added the majority of his calls from citizens involve “property issues” that require a surveying background.

“The commissioners would have to hire someone to oversee the surveying responsibilities that we currently do, and just the delays it would take to coordinate between county engineer and county surveyor, I guess, to just to do any project,” Fauber said.

Daniels asked how a surveyor would charge for these services in the event the county had to pay for both positions.

“I assume that would be negotiated, but you know, it'd be well over $100,000 before you would get somebody to agree to that,” Fauber said. “The other problem, as a county engineer, as a professional surveyor in the county, I can't survey in the county because I can't review my own work. Anybody you would hire, a local firm, would not want to do that, because then they would not be able to survey in the county because they can't review their own work, so now you're going to be hiring a firm or an individual, probably outside the county.”

Daniels said that in that case, a county could potentially have to hire “multiple surveyors to get the same amount of work done,” if area firms can’t review their own surveys. Fauber said townships would run into the same problem of having to hire, and pay for, a surveyor.

In addition, Fauber said that he and the CEAO are concerned that by removing the dual-licensure requirement, it will also impact the type of engineers who may seek public office. He said that “Ohio doesn’t lower its standards, so why do we want to lower the standard for a professional or elected position?

“Ohio doesn't separate PE licensure, so a PE in Ohio is considered a professional engineer whether you're a civil engineer, a mechanical engineer, electrical engineer,” Fauber said. “By adding the surveying requirement, it kind of makes you be a civil engineer too, because you have to have a civil background to be a surveyor. If they drop that requirement, you could have an electrical engineer run for county engineer.

“We feel that that's not a good idea. If someone's building bridges and roads, you need to have a civil background.”

In an unrelated potential legislative change, Daniels spoke out against a proposed constitutional amendment for the “abolishment” of property taxes, with commissioners also voting 3-0 to send a letter to legislators and to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine advocating for “meaningful property tax reform.

“We certainly understand the frustration that the taxpayers have had with property taxes, especially after our last reevaluation, but the proposed ballot language does not take into consideration any kind of replacement revenue,” Daniels said. “The legislature needs to take up meaningful property tax reform, not just poking around the outside edges of it and doing something that will provide small comfort, but something that truly addresses some of the problems that we've seen, and not just in Highland County, but all across the state.”

As previously reported, under state law, counties must undergo a reappraisal of all parcels every six years, as well as a triennial update in between these major appraisals. For Highland County, residential properties saw an average 30-percent increase in values with the recent reappraisal. However, Daniels pointed out that the county collects “about seven cents out of every property tax dollar that comes in.

“It makes up about 16 or 21 percent of our budget,” Daniels said. “It makes up more than that with school districts and the Department of Health.

“If the ballot language would get on the ballot, and it would pass with no replacement, we would see drastic cuts to sheriff services, to almost every department and agency that the county operates. Now, I think that most people would say that depletion of public safety services is not a good thing. While we understand the reason that people have taken this action, it is shortsighted to move forward without the plan of how you're going to fund local government, local emergency services.”

Daniels added that the state needs to find a solution that “protects the revenue stream” for essential services without “taxing people out of their homes” with the current state-mandated revaluations and increases.

“It's hurting people,” Daniels said. “We've done what we're allowed to do by rolling back our inside millage to a level that is, I guess, comparable to what we were receiving before the revaluation, so it's time for others to step up and do their part for the taxpayers and help them with what they need.”

Roades agreed, saying that commissioners “can feel the heartache and the need of the people” with appeals through the Board of Revision.

Commissioners voted in December to pass a resolution reducing the rate of property tax within the 10-mill limitation for tax year 2024 (collectable in 2025) pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 5705.313. According to Daniels, this will reduce the county’s “inside millage for a period of one year.” The resolution states that the county is currently levying 2.9 mills ($.29 for each $100 of valuation), while in 2025 they will collect 2.5 mills ($.25 for each $100 of valuation).

Highland County auditor Alex Butler also weighed in, as he agreed that the county is “not unaware or unconcerned with what has happened all across the state and has just now come to Highland County with the first post-COVID state-mandated reappraisal.

“The county is just a passthrough for most of the tax dollars that are collected.” Butler said. “If you look on the pie chart on the auditor's website, we push that money out to where it eventually ends up, and where the taxes are levied and where that goes, and the county general fund, as you've already mentioned, keeps just cents on the dollar.
 
“We are the biggest advocates right now of the taxpayers of Highland County.”

Butler said that the County Commissioners Association of Ohio and County Auditors Association of Ohio are both advocating for tax reform as well, as “there is a lot of legislation that is happening right now in Columbus that could provide some relief” if enacted.

“We do what we can within the confines of the law and what we actually have the authority to do,” Butler said. “We're just a very small piece of that pie chart of where the money goes, and so much of how this taxing policy works is policy set at the state level that we are bound to abide by.

“It is not right for someone to be taxed out of their home. That should not happen, but we are getting to the point where we may start seeing that, and that is unacceptable, so we are advocating. A lot of it goes on behind the scenes, and it's been going on for quite some time, and hopefully we'll see that come to fruition in legislation that the legislature will take action on and pass. In the meantime, you guys have done what you can do to lower your millage that you collect, and even though it's just a small portion of the total tax bill that people pay, it’s what you're able to do.”

Britton concluded that “everybody knows” that “property taxes are a problem” and that it is time for legislators to “get off their duff and do something about it.”

In other discussion:

• Highland County Job & Family Services Director Jeremy Ratcliff shared the Social Services Block Grant County Profile Report Summary, which commissioners approved by a 3-0 vote. Ratcliff emphasized that the majority of the funding will be dedicated to Children Services costs.

“That is essentially our spending plan for Title XX dollars and Title XX TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] transfer,” Ratcliff said. “There are a lot of options how these dollars could be used, but in our county, out of the $707,000 we anticipate getting, all but $45,000 would be spent on Children Services, whether that's staffing costs to provide protective supervision for children or actual foster care costs associated with children’s care. The other $45,000 in Title XX dollars that we plan to spend on services with senior citizens.

“Really, our decisions are kind of made for us, given the amount of children in care, so when I do say we try to divert as many federal or state colleges as we can to help support our Children Services program, this is an example.”

• Commissioners also voted 3-0 to approve a $10,502.75 quote from Central Square to purchase the county’s Next Generation 911 interface.

The vote came a week after reaching an agreement with Central Square to convert the Highland County Sheriff’s Office’s software system into the cloud. Highland County 911 coordinator Scott Miller said this interface was required regardless of whether they had converted to the cloud, as the state is requiring upgrades to the new 911 system.

“At our last 911 meeting with the state, they had received over 14,000 911 calls in the first four months of the year on the counties that are already on the Next Gen 911, system with no issues that were reported,” Miller said. “Central Square is kind of wanting to do everything at one time, instead of having two downtimes.”

• Commissioners discussed requests from the public about placing additional recycling bins at the Hi-TEC building, as it is currently the only recycling location in the city of Hillsboro. Commission clerk Ashleigh Willey said they have received “quite a few calls” at the commissioners’ office about the need for more Dumpsters and that the RPHF Solid Waste District as well as the county maintenance departments were looking into it.

However, both Ratcliff (who works in the Hi-TEC building) and Daniels said the site is “a mess” due to issues with people dumping trash instead of recyclables.

“This has been a problem ever since the whole recycling program started,” Daniels said. “You've got people that are just taking their trash out there and dumping it, and it's not what it's intended for. 

“If we provide extra bins, we're just going to invite more junk. I get it, and I understand that they're only coming up here to dump every so often, but the more we add, the more trash is going to be out.”

Roades said there is “obviously a need” for additional recycling bins, but Daniels said “there’s not a need for more dumping space.”

• Daniels addressed comments and “questions about some of the work that we've been doing on the county buildings,” as the administration building is currently under construction, while upgrades are also expected to be made to the courthouse. The county is also in the process of constructing a records storage building and a new truck barn for the engineer’s office. 

“Every building, every structure, needs maintenance and needs upgrades and repairs from time to time,” Daniels said. “We are doing an awful lot of work on the facilities that the county's got. The county administration building was built in 1976 and hasn't had any major renovations or major improvements done. We've got an electrical system in there that's outdated, that we can't get parts for, and it's pushing some of those things. The county courthouse, the oldest courthouse in continuous use in the state of Ohio, we've got some leaking going on. 

“While it may appear that we're doing an awful lot of work, which we are, I think that our hope is that the repairs that we're able to make now are things that will last for the next 50 years, and other boards of commissioners and other sheriffs aren't going to have to deal with some of the things that we've got. Hopefully people will understand what we're doing and why we're doing it, and I think that we've been very thoughtful about the work that needs to be done, and I think that we've tried to do it in a timely manner that best serves the taxpayers.”

In other action, commissioners made the following approvals, each by a 3-0 vote:

• A request from the Sheriff’s Office to rename FEMA (2320) Fund to Sheriff K-9 Donation Fund. Also
requested is to create the following line items within the 2320 fund: Equipment and Supplies.

• A request from Probation for a budget modification within the 2615 CCA 2.0 FY24-25 Fund in the amount of $3,000.

• A service agreement with Maximus US Services, Inc. for the Prosecutor’s Office, with a $3,500 annual service fee.

• An Ohio Water Development Authority fund payment request for Rocky Fork Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements.

• A payment application from Mechanical Construction for a contractor’s estimate for Rocky Fork Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements.

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