Commissioners Give $1.7 Million Back to Taxpayers
Following an unusually large cash carryover projected for the 2026 budget, the Geauga County Commissioners voted Dec. 16 to return $1.7 million to taxpayers.
Following an unusually large cash carryover projected for the 2026 budget, the Geauga County Commissioners voted Dec. 16 to return $1.7 million to taxpayers.
The carryover was estimated at $15 million, significantly exceeding earlier projections of $6.7 million, according to a press release from the commissioners’ office.
“The financial system calculates what is called the ‘unappropriated balance,’” Geauga County Finance Director Adrian Gorton explained Dec. 22. “This, at the time of the tax budget, was the $6.7 million.”
This is not a number he calculates, but which ends up serving as the end balance for the general fund in the current year in the 2026 tax budget, he said.
“I present a different number at the tax budget presentation in July, a higher number that I estimate,” he said. “I estimate it because the financial system cannot account for additional revenue and unexpended appropriations. The number that I estimated for the carryover into 2026 was $10.5 million, which was still too low due to the extra $4.5 million in uncertified revenue we will likely collect this year.”
The refund would occur via the suspension of a 0.5-mill children’s services levy for the Geauga County Job and Family Services.
“This idea of suppressing a levy came up last week following session in our discussion of the budget,” Geauga County Administrator Amy Bevan said. “Following session, I emailed (Geauga County Auditor Chuck Walder) to ask him what the procedures are for doing such an action should the commissioners decide that they wanted to take action.”
Walder invited Bevan to attend a Geauga County Budget Commission meeting, which she went to along with Commissioner Carolyn Brakey and Geauga County Finance Manager Adrian Gorton, Bevan said.
Following discussion, the budget commission agreed to fully suppress the JFS levy, Bevan said, though the timing of the action is late in the budget cycle.
“If the commissioners choose to adopt the resolution that’s been drafted today, it would still need to be approved by Columbus,” she said.
The Geauga County Prosecutor’s Office prepared a resolution, delivered to commissioners mid-meeting, covering both the levy suppression and an amended rate resolution, Bevan said.
Geauga County Commissioner Jim Dvorak said he was in favor of the suppression, noting commissioners have done it in the past. Both Brakey and Commissioner Ralph Spidalieri concurred.
“When we saw the numbers, it was clear,” Spidalieri said in the press release. “We didn’t need this money from taxpayers. JFS will still be fully funded, but we’ll cover it through the general fund.”
The money should go where it will be used, Brakey added in the release.
“People are feeling the pinch every time they buy groceries or fill up their gas tank. If the county doesn’t need the money, it shouldn’t sit in a government savings account. It should stay with the people who earned it,” she said.
According to previous reporting, the former board of commissioners suspended two JFS levies in 2023 to offset increased property taxes, planning to use additional revenue generated by those taxes to cover the funding gap.
Given the late timing of the submission, Brakey said she would consider it a “Christmas miracle” if the suppression were approved.
Later that day, Brakey reported the Ohio Department of Taxation had, in fact, accepted the county’s revised DTE-27 tax form, clearing the way for the refund to move forward.
“This was a team effort,” Dvorak said in the release. “We thank the auditor’s office, the prosecutor’s office, the budget commission and our county staff for their hard work in getting this over the finish line. We cut taxes, protected services and still kept the county on solid financial ground.”
