Loss Reimbursement Amounts
EXPLANATION OF SB 3 AND 287 TAX LOSS REIMBURSEMENT
PRINTOUTS
OVERVIEW
Senate Bill 3 (enacted in June 1999) and Senate Bill 287
(enacted in December 2000) made both regulatory and tax
changes for electric and gas utilities. Among those changes
was the reduction in assessment rates for tangible personal
property of these utilities and hold harmless payments for
schools and local governments to reimburse them for the local
tax losses due to the reductions in property taxes resulting
from the assessment rate changes. For more information on the
property tax changes and the reimbursement determinations,
see the Senate Bills 3 and
287 Question and Answer Guide.
REIMBURSEMENT SPREADSHEETS
The attached spreadsheets show the tax loss reimbursement
amounts from Senate Bills 3 and 287 for all jurisdictions in
the state sorted by the home county of the jurisdiction.
There are eight spreadsheets attached. Six are for fixed-rate
levy losses by type of jurisdiction (one each for the county,
local schools, municipalities, townships, joint vocational
schools, and special districts). Fixed-rate levies
include all levies except voted bond and school emergency
levies. Second, there are two spreadsheets showing
the reimbursement amounts for fixed-sum levies (voted bond
and school emergency levies), one for school districts and
one for non-school districts. There are only four non-schools
that qualify for fixed-sum reimbursements (Jefferson county,
Eastlake city, Moscow village, and Carroll township in Ottawa
county).
Relatively few jurisdictions (under 50 statewide) qualify for
reimbursement on fixed-sum levies because of the 0.25 mill
threshold that must be met. For a jurisdiction to receive a
fixed-sum levy reimbursement, the total revenue loss must
exceed the revenue produced by 0.25 mills applied to total
tax year 1999 taxable value (less the tax value losses due to
S.B. 3 and S.B. 287).
The reimbursement amounts in the spreadsheets are shown
individually for each eligible levy and are split between
reimbursements for electric property value losses and gas
property value losses. The spreadsheets also include the
beginning year for each levy (a value of 0 indicates an
inside levy) and the expiration year for each levy (a "."
means a continuing levy).
The levies eligible for reimbursement are different for
electric and gas property value losses. For electric
property, we used the greater of the 1998 rate or the 1999
rate, except that levies passed after June 30, 1999 were not
counted. For gas property, we used the higher of the 1999 and
2000 rates. This is not a levy-by-levy comparison.
For fixed-rate levies, we used the higher of the total
fixed-rate levies for each year. The same was done separately
for fixed-sum levies.
A missing value (indicated by a ".") in either the electric
reimbursement rate or the gas reimbursement rate means that
levy does not qualify for reimbursement. There are generally
two circumstances where this occurs. The first is that the
levy has been either replaced or renewed and the new levy is
being reimbursed for that purpose. For example, if a levy
expired in 1998 and was renewed starting in 1999, the
original levy would qualify for the electric reimbursement
but not the gas reimbursement (since it was not in effect in
either 1999 or 2000), while the renewed levy qualifies for
gas reimbursement, but not electric (since it was not in
effect in 1998). The second is that the levy was enacted in
1999 but is not eligible for the electric reimbursement
because it was passed after June 30, 1999.
The valuation changes associated with these tax losses were
previously certified. They are available on the Internet by
school district and by taxing
district at http://tax.ohio.gov/channels/government/government_certified_tax_value_losses.html.
Note that the values shown on the Internet are not broken
down between electric and gas losses.
The fixed-rate levy reimbursements were calculated by
applying qualifying levies against the valuation losses.
Fixed-sum levies require a two step calculation. First, the
qualified levies were applied against the valuation losses to
calculate the tax losses. Second, 0.25 mills was multiplied
times the jurisdictions’ total 1999 taxable value after
subtracting the valuation losses from Senate Bills 3 and 287.
If the sum of the tax losses from all fixed-sum levies was
less than the second calculation, no reimbursements are made.
Otherwise, the reimbursement is the difference between the
first calculation and the second.
Reimbursement of the tax losses will begin in February, 2002.
Reimbursements to schools and joint vocational schools will
be made directly to those entities by the Department of
Education. Reimbursements to other local jurisdictions will
be made by the Department of Taxation through the county
auditors.
For non-schools, payments will be made twice per year
(February and August). Each payment will be for 50 percent of
the annual calculated loss. For schools, the February 2002
reimbursement will be for 50 percent of the annual calculated
loss. Beginning in August 2002, a portion of the
reimbursement may be received through the SF-3 program. This
will occur for reimbursement of current expense levies for
districts that receive their state aid based on the school
foundation formula. Districts that receive state aid based on
the guarantee, as well as reimbursements of fixed-sum levies,
permanent improvement levies, and formula district current
expense levies above 23 mills will continue twice per year in
February and August.
If you have any questions or if you think there are any
errors in the attached spreadsheets, please contact your
county auditor or the Tax Analysis Division at SB3@tax.state.oh.us.
Please note: Most of our data is
available in one of three different formats.
Spreadsheets and downloadable data is offered in either Lotus
*wk1 and/or Microsoft *xls and can be used with most recent
Lotus SmartSuite or Microsoft Office 97 spreadsheet or
database applications. These files are ideal for use
when extracting and merging data. The Adobe *pdf files
provide a nice, clean, printed copy. Adobe Acrobat
Reader is the application required to view the *pdf
files and can be downloaded, if necessary, from adobe.com.
Thanks for your continued interest.