What's "NEWS" at Advantage Appraisals

DAYTON — Semiannual residential property tax bills are being mailed Monday to residents of Montgomery County. Property owners in surrounding counties who haven’t received bills yet should also expect them within the week.

Montgomery County Auditor Karl Keith said all residential property owners should expect higher tax bills due to voter approval of the Human Services Levy in November. At least 4,300 of the county’s approximately 180,000 residential property owners will see their tax bills go up by $500 or more per year due to passage of 12 school, police, fire, road or operating levies in 2010.

Montgomery County communities seeing the greatest spikes are Oakwood, Miami Twp., Miamisburg and Kettering.

“We’re bracing ourselves for what we expect to be a very difficult tax collection period, probably one of the most difficult I have ever seen,” Keith said.

The auditor said economic conditions and the struggling housing market all add to the angst of property owners facing hikes in taxes. The increases come after 105,000 residential property owners saw their values fall as a result of the 2008 reappraisal.

“You send out tax bills with that kind of backdrop and property owners see increases, we expect people to have a lot of questions and to be somewhat unhappy,” Keith said.

Jayne Whitaker said she made a choice to move to Oakwood from Dayton 10 years ago, knowing she’d pay higher taxes to support greater levels of service and excellent schools. She’s planning to move soon, but her new home will also be in Oakwood.

“Taxes are high, but still seemingly worth the outcome. We’re here to stay,” she said.

Whitaker said the beauty of tax levies is that voters do have opportunities to vote them down if they feel the money isn’t spent wisely.