Ohio § 5705.31

§ 5705.31.

The county auditor shall present to the county budget commission the annual tax budgets

submitted under sections 5705.01 to 5705.47 of the Revised Code , together with an estimate prepared by the auditor of the amount of any state levy,

the rate of any school tax levy as previously determined, the tax commissioner's estimate

of the amount to be received in the county public library fund, the tax rates provided

under section 5705.281 of the Revised Code if adoption of the tax budget was waived under that section, and such other information

as the commission requests or the tax commissioner prescribes. The budget commission shall examine such budget and, if the taxing authority is a

board of education that has elected to include projections pursuant to division (E) of section 5705.391 of the Revised Code , shall examine such projections.  Using the budget and, if applicable, included projections, the budget commission

shall ascertain the total amount proposed to be raised in the county for the purposes

of each subdivision and other taxing units in the county and the need for those amounts.  Except as otherwise provided in this section, the county budget commission may reduce

the amount to be raised by any levy pursuant to section 5705.32 of the Revised Code . The commission shall ascertain that the following levies have been properly authorized

and, if so authorized, shall approve them without modification: (A) All levies in excess of the ten-mill limitation in the first year they are levied,

unless the levy is the renewal of an existing tax or the subdivision or taxing unit

requests an amount requiring a lower rate for the succeeding fiscal year.  Such a request for an amount requiring a lower rate applies only to the succeeding

fiscal year unless the subdivision or taxing unit expressly states that the request

is permanent. (B) All levies for unsatisfied debt charges, including levies that remain necessary to

pay notes issued for emergency purposes; (C) The levies prescribed by division (B) of sections 742.33 and 742.34 of the Revised Code ; (D) Except as otherwise provided in this division, a minimum levy within the ten-mill

limitation for the current expense and debt service of each subdivision or taxing

unit, which shall equal two-thirds of the average levy for current expenses and debt

service allotted within the fifteen-mill limitation to such subdivision or taxing

unit during the last five years the fifteen-mill limitation was in effect unless such

subdivision or taxing unit requests an amount requiring a lower rate for the succeeding

fiscal year, or if it expressed its intent to forgo collections from such a levy under division (E) of section 5705.29 of the Revised Code .  Such a request for an amount requiring a lower rate applies only to the succeeding

fiscal year unless the subdivision or taxing unit expressly states that the request

is permanent. Except as provided in section 5705.312 of the Revised Code , if the levies required in divisions (B) and (C) of this section for the subdivision

or taxing unit equal or exceed the entire minimum levy of the subdivision as fixed,

the minimum levies of the other subdivisions or taxing units shall be reduced by the

commission to provide for the levies and an operating levy for the subdivision.  Such additional levy shall be deducted from the minimum levies of each of the other

subdivisions or taxing units, but the operating levy for a school district shall not

be reduced below a figure equivalent to forty-five per cent of the millage available

within the ten-mill limitation after all the levies in divisions (B) and (C) of this

section have been provided for. If a municipal corporation and a township have entered into an annexation agreement

under section 709.192 of the Revised Code in which they agree to reallocate their shares of the minimum levies established

under this division and if that annexation agreement is submitted along with the annual

tax budget of both the township and the municipal corporation, then, when determining

the minimum levy under this division, the auditor shall allocate, to the extent possible,

the minimum levy for that municipal corporation and township in accordance with their

annexation agreement. Divisions (A) to (D) of this section are mandatory, and commissions shall be without

discretion to reduce such minimum levies except as provided in such divisions or as

required in section 5705.316 of the Revised Code . If any debt charge is omitted from the budget, the commission shall include it therein.