Kings to Lose Tax Dollars Due to Recent Annexation
On Thursday, September 21, the Village of South Lebanon voted to annex the Peter’s Cartridge Factory property away from Hamilton Township. This decision to annex was made without communicating with the Kings Local School District. Annexation is a legal process by which some property located in an unincorporated area of a township may become part of a neighboring city or village.
Along with this annexation comes a 100% tax abatement for the developer, Bloomfield-Schon. This will mean that the 130+ apartments that are scheduled to be built in the Peters Cartridge Factory Complex will receive a 100% tax break for 15 years, leaving the Kings Local School District residents to pay to educate the children that will reside in this new development.
The tax abatement is a tax incentive called a CRA (Community Reinvestment Area). The biggest stakeholder in any property tax forgiveness in Ohio is the local school district. Kings Schools’ administrators were in negotiations with the developer and Warren County to try to come to an agreement to match the taxes collected for the number of students that will reside at the new complex. Hamilton Township, where the property is located, asked Warren County to issue the CRA since the Township is not legally allowed to file. Warren County agreed to file the CRA, but their only requirement was that the developer and the school district agree to terms of the tax abatement prior to filing, even though it is not required by law.
In our negotiations, the developer discussed a 75% tax break. That tax break would net the school district around $47,000/year in tax collections, which only covers the cost of four students. So, if more than four students reside at the property, the funds to pay for the additional students would need to be covered by the district, and ultimately the local community/taxpayer base.
The developer stated they didn’t believe that students would reside at the new property, due to the type of development that is being planned. Our district disagrees. Our research shows that on average,14% of those who reside in apartment complexes in our district have children that attend our schools. If we use the 14% number, we could approximate that nearly 20 students could potentially live in the complex, creating a large deficit in tax collections; over $200,000 per year.
While the district was in the middle of negotiations with the developer, it was rumored that the developer may contact the Village of South Lebanon to annex the property, since South Lebanon can also issue a CRA. Kings’ District administration reached out to the South Lebanon administration on several occasions, asking to meet with the Village Administrator and Mayor before they made this decision. In fact, the Village of South Lebanon chose not to meet with the school district and did not even acknowledge or communicate with our administration that they would be annexing the property, even after we attempted to contact them to discuss the negative financial ramifications to the school district. The district was disappointed last week to hear that Bloomfield-Schon worked with South Lebanon to annex the property without even trying to come to an agreement with the Kings School District.
The district wants to partner and play a role in the economic development of the area, but it is important to the Kings Board of Education to look out for the financial health of the district and our taxpayers first. The Kings School District also appreciates the efforts that Hamilton Township made to help the developer attain and prepare the property to be developed. We are saddened by the actions of the Village of South Lebanon and the developer and hope in the future, communication will occur prior to decisions made that will have a negative financial impact on our school district and taxpayers.
If this is concerning to you, please don’t hesitate to contact the Village of South Lebanon Council Members and Developer, Bloomfield-Schon.
Village of South Lebanon- 513-494-2296
Mayor James D. Smith jsmith@southlebanonohio.org
Vice-Mayor James Boerio jboerio@southlebanonohio.org
Randall Atkins ratkins@southlebanonohio.org
Sue Johnson sjohnson@southlebanonohio.org
William Madison wmadison@southlebanonohio.org
Steve Riley sriley@southlebanonohio.org
George Teasdale gteasdale@southlebanonohio.org
Developer Bloomfield-Schon- 513-241-6363 info@bloomfieldschon.com