In addition to the commissioners, the trustees in Fairfield, Liberty and West Chester townships, and officials in Middletown and Seven Mile agreed to forgo the windfall from the value update. This was the second tax break the commissioners have given property owners in recent years, the first was in 2022 when they rolled back their entire $18.5 million property tax collection.
Those rollbacks are expiring and Nix is reporting a “slight increase” in taxes between $14 and $29 per $100,000 of property value.
“We’ve had to readjust our budget and of course the county’s budget is 75% to 80% labor so we had to make some adjustments in there to stay competitive and meet our collective bargaining commitments,” Commissioner Don Dixon said. “It just made sense that since we gave it twice and there’s been enough time, everybody’s kind of over the sticker shock. It made sense to go back to where we need to focus on the total budget overall, so we can restrain any increases that may be coming our way.”
Several communities passed levies last year which will be hitting the 2025 tax bills, the largest is in the village of New Miami where voters approved a brand new 3-mill street levy by a mere four votes — on election night it appeared the measure failed but was declared successful upon certification — and a 6-mill additional fire levy for a total additional cost of $315 per $100,000 of property value. The commissioners’ erased rollback adds another $17 per $100,000 of value for a total of $332 in the tiny village.
“New Miami is going to get sticker shock,” Nix told the Journal-News. “I feel bad for them, it’s for worthwhile services no question, it’s just very expensive.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Voters in Liberty Twp. and Oxford approved tax increases last year. Taxes are increasing about $106 per $100,000 of property value for a 2.6 mill fire/EMS levy, including the expunged county rollback. Liberty Twp. taxpayers will see a slight increase, $10.50 per $100,000 of property value, for a 3-mill police levy renewal.
Taxpayers can find their exact tax increase by using the levy calculator on the auditor’s website at auditor.bcohio.gov. Just search an individual property and click the levy calculator link at top left in bold.
Voters may also recall approving a countywide Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Services Board (MHARS) additional operating levy last year, but the change won’t show up on tax bills until next year. The same holds true for Lemon Twp. voters who approved a fire levy.
The Butler County Treasurer’s Office will be mailing out first half property tax bills at the end of this month and they will hit mailboxes the first week of February, with a tentative due date of Feb. 27. Butler County property owners will be billed roughly $660 million this year, up from $645 million last year and $600 million in 2023.
Taxes are billed twice a year but County Treasurer Mike McNamara said they offer an escrow program for homeowners who own their home, much like mortgage payments, which allows taxpayers to pay small bills year round, rather than two big chunks annually.
He said people who have fallen behind on their taxes have repayment plan options and “in recent years we’ve been pretty generous on the number of contracts we’ll allow, because if somebody is actually trying to pay their taxes it’s my job to collect the taxes by law, I want to make sure I’m helping them rather than penalizing them.”
Nix was the first to “ring the alarm bell” last year when early numbers from the state hinted the average property value hike for the triennial update could be around 42%. The final countywide average value hike was 37% and officials beseeched state lawmakers to give taxpayers relief — to no avail.
Taxes don’t soar at the same rate as values but some taxpayer received incredibly high tax bills last year. The highest tax bill increase was in Lemon Twp. within the Monroe School District with an average value increase of 62% and tax increase of 42%. The average value went from $137,000 to $221,000 and taxes jumped from $2,800 to $4,000 on average.
The lowest tax hike was in Fairfield Twp. within the Fairfield Schools where the average value went from $172,600 to $234,500 with an average 4.15% tax hike from $3,248 to $3,383.
The auditor said housing prices continue to climb, market statistics from the Multiple Listing Service of Greater Cincinnati, show the median Butler County single-family home sale price was up 6.9 percent in 2024. The next state-mandated county reappraisal will be in 2026. If property owners believe their property value is inaccurate they have until April 1 to file an appeal with the Board of Revision. Information is available on Nix’s website.
State legislators introduced 23 bills that touch various aspects of property tax reform during the past couple years, but only two relatively small measures passed. A special Joint Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform was convened and they recently released 21 recommendations for reform but no concrete plans.
Sen. Bill Blessing, a Colerain Twp. Republican and co-chair of the committee said the reason the group didn’t come to a consensus was, “in short, the disagreements are over who pays and who benefits.”
The new tax bills aren’t as bad as last year, but Nix told the Journal-News she doesn’t think taxpayers will cut lawmakers any slack on finding and passing relief, “everybody is going to be getting a slight increase and it’s going to remind them that they are paying way too much in property taxes.”
“This was supposed to be fixed last year and it did not get fixed and people are clamoring for it, they’re angry, so I don’t know that they’re going to have a choice, they’re going to have to come up with something,” Nix said and later added, “I don’t think the public is going to tolerate inaction and I agree with them. This is getting a little ridiculous, so get it done or find something else to do.
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