State May Claw Back Some Property Tax Dollars
Currently Going to School District 20 Mill Floor Adjustments
Budget Commission Meeting – January 22, 2026
Meeting Details: The Geauga County Budget Commission met in Special Session on Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. The meeting was in person with a virtual attendance option via MS Teams. To attend Budget Commission meetings virtually via MS Teams, email an invitation request to Pam McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.
Meeting Attendance: Prosecutor Jim Flaiz, ADP (Automatic Data Processing) Chief Deputy Administrator Frank Antenucci (substituting for Auditor Chuck Walder), and Deputy Treasurer Donna Borsi (arriving at 10:07 to substitute for Treasurer Chris Hitchcock).
Staff Attendance: Deputy Auditors Kristen Sinatra and Tina Kloski, Chief Operations Officer Pam McMahan, and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Rine (virtual).
County Staff: N/A
Members of the Public: This LWV Geauga Observer (virtual).
The meeting was called to order at 10:02 am.
Minutes: Minutes from the Special Meetings on December 30, 2025 and January 8, 2026 were both approved and can be found here when published.
The following Revenue Certificates were approved:
Reviewer Note: An explanation of the different types of funds in revenue certifications can be found
here.
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Berkshire Local Schools - Amendment #6. $25,372,369.84 in the general fund, $4,488,200.56 in special revenue funds, $1,609,211.37 in debt service funds, $722,624.59 in capital project funds, $882,491.27 in enterprise funds, $480,181.82 in internal service funds, and $197,472.01 in fiduciary funds for a total of $33,752,551.45.
Berkshire’s amendment certified increases in both the general fund and special revenue funds. Mr. Flaiz commented that he heard that Berkshire might be putting on another earned income tax, but no one else said that they had heard that. Observer Note: This matter is discussed more in the Public Comment section below.
Observer Note: The Budget Commission requests that all entities provide beginning balances for all funds within 90 days of the start of the year. The following are certifications of the 2026 beginning
balances for each entity below:
This amendment certified Russell Township Citizens’ Park District’s beginning balances for 2026.
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Newbury Township - Amendment #1. $1,798,676.00 in the general fund, $4,066,202.09 in special revenue funds, $364,145.93 in debt service funds, $730,943.78 in capital project funds, and $1,535.64 in special assessment funds for a total of $6,961,503.44.
This amendment certified Newbury’s beginning balances for 2026.
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Troy Township - Amendment #1. $362,595.68 in the general fund and $2,264,430.17 in special revenue funds for a total of $2,627,025.85.
This amendment certified Troy’s beginning balances for 2026.
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Geauga County Public Library - Amendment #1. $13,627,727.42 in the general fund, $149,688.16 in special revenue funds, $1,637,932.42 in debt service funds, and $13,555,358.45 in capital project funds for a total of $28,970,706.45.
This amendment certified Geauga County Public Library’s beginning balances for 2026.
The following Revenue Certification was re-signed:
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Geauga County - Amendment #1. $62,179,557.81 in the general fund, $112,925,852.94 in special revenue funds, $5,217,541.26 in debt service funds, $1,145,055.59 in special assessment funds, $18,860,648.14 in capital project funds, $32,304,589.52 in enterprise funds, $1,751,515.64 in internal service funds, and $3,783,883.29 in fiduciary funds for a total of $238,168,644.19.
Ms. Sinatra explained that Geauga County’s amendment certifying the beginning balances for 2026 had to be re-signed due to an error in the amount of special revenue fund #2014 (Child Support Enforcement). Fixing this error increased the special revenue fund total by $30,000.
Discussion:
Ms. Sinatra stated that the Budget Commissioners voted to set the tax collection rate for 2027 budget cycle at the second Budget Commission meeting in January during their Annual Reorganization Meeting on August 4, 2025. This amount is determined by the Treasurer and voted upon by the Budget Commission. Mr. Flaiz said he thought that Mr. Hitchcock had indicated that he wanted to keep it unchanged at 98%. He asked Ms. Borsi if that was her understanding, but she said that Mr. Hitchcock hadn’t discussed the matter with her. Ms. Sinatra suggested leaving the tax rate “status quo” (98%) for now and revisiting it at the Budget Commission’s next meeting. Mr. Flaiz moved that the 98% rate be approved as a place holder until the next meeting when the Treasurer can confirm it or adjust it as needed. This motion passed unanimously.
Ms. Sinatra informed the Budget Commissioners that all school district budgets were received by the January 20 deadline in advance of the School Budget Hearings, which will take place on February 18 and 19. She added that they are planning to create rate resolutions for the schools based on the effective rates as they stand now, but, if the effective rates are changed by the state at a later date, the rate resolutions may need to be amended. She noted that the rate change may go into effect for second half collection later this year. Mr. Flaiz asked if the rates might be changed due to legislation, and Ms. Sinatra confirmed this may be the case. Observer Note: Presumably the legislation in question refers to several recently passed Ohio House Bills affecting property tax calculations. More information is available here. She stressed that it isn’t known for sure what will happen yet, but if effective rates are changed, she thought that West Geauga Schools and Berkshire Schools might be affected due to changes in how the 20 mill floor is calculated under the new legislation.
Mr. Flaiz said he would be curious to see what the schools’ cash balances are at the Budget Hearings. He asked if Berkshire included an inside millage shift in their budget, and Ms. Sinatra said they did not. Observer Note: The Budget Commission denied Berkshire’s attempt to shift inside millage from the general fund to permanent improvement at a Special Budget Commission Meeting on April 22, 2025. She stated that the Berkshire budget revenue figures show “what the state would pay them after they claw back.” Mr. Flaiz then asked “Okay, so we definitely think there's going to be a claw back on the (20 mill) floor (adjustment)?” Ms. Sinatra confirmed that is what they think is going to happen. Mr. Flaiz asked if the claw back would amount to a significant amount of money. Ms. Sinatra said it’s being called “an inflation cap” and that the calculations would be done by the State Department of Taxation and Equalization for this year, but next year the calculations will be done by the Auditor’s Office. She further explained that what they think will happen is: “... a give back (of tax money) to the taxpayers by taking away from the schools, and then the state is supposed to be reimbursing (the schools) because of the short notice.” She again stressed that there is a lot of uncertainty about what exactly will happen.
Mr. Flaiz expressed incredulity that the tax rates would need to be recalculated mid-year and opined that tax rate changes should be made effective as of January 1 to avoid this situation. He and Mr. Antenucci said that it would be helpful to have a projection of how much money the schools stand to lose due to the property tax legislation changes before the School Budget Hearings next month. Ms. Sinatra again said that her understanding was that “... anything that does get reduced is still going to get paid back (by the State).” Mr. Flaiz said “it shouldn’t be an issue” beyond possibly having to approve another set of tax rates later this year.
Public Comment:
Harkening back to Mr. Flaiz’s earlier question, this observer commented that it did appear that Berkshire was considering putting an additional 0.5% (misstated as 5%) earned income tax on the ballot, but whether or not this will occur is currently uncertain. The Berkshire Board of Education will consider the matter further at a Special Meeting on January 29 at 6:00 pm. Observer Note: See the LWV Geauga Observer Report on the January 12, 2026 Berkshire Board of Education Meeting and this Geauga Maple Leaf article (which may be behind a paywall for some readers) for more information. During public comment, this observer misspoke and said that this would be an additional 5% earned income tax (EIT). The correct number is an additional 0.5% EIT. Berkshire currently has a 1.0% EIT in place.
This observer asked Mr. Flaiz about a situation with Geauga Park District’s Board. A citizen reached out to LWVG and stated that two GPD board members resigned from the board but still took part in the GPD Board meeting on January 20; whether or not the members who resigned were reappointed prior to this meeting is unknown. Observer Note: The LWVG Observer Report on the January 20, 2026 GPD Meeting is available here. Mr. Flaiz said he was aware of the situation and noted that Judge Berger accepted the resignations of the two GPD board members effective December 31, 2025, and these two individuals then participated as Board members in the GPD meeting on January 20, 2026. He said that he had reached out to GPD’s legal counsel for an explanation of this situation the day before, and their counsel is looking into the matter. Mr. Flaiz said he would wait to hear back from GPD’s counsel and would set up a meeting with Judge Berger to find out what is going on if he doesn’t get an explanation from GPD’s counsel. He vowed that “I will get to the bottom of it” and said he hoped to know more by the end of the week.
This observer also requested a copy of all materials from the meeting, which were received via email on January 22, 2026.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:26 am.
Next Meeting: The next Budget Commission meeting will be a Regular Meeting on February 2, 2026 at 10:00 am. Virtual attendance for all Budget Commission meetings is available via Microsoft Teams by emailing an invitation request to Ms. McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.
Observer: Sarah McGlone
Editor: Rooney Moy
Reviewer: Gail Roussey
Submitted: January 22, 2026
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