Explanation
BACKGROUND: By authority of ORC Section 5709.82, the City is required to pay affected school districts 50 percent (50%) of the municipal income tax revenue attributable to tax abated projects where the annual ‘new employee’ payroll for a project is one million dollars for an Enterprise Zone (EZ) or for a Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) two million dollars or more, in a given tax year, during the abatement. This municipal income tax revenue sharing with affected school districts applies to all property tax abatements approved by the legislative authority after July 1, 1994 and is based on the ‘new employee’ wages paid in a tax year, during the years of tax exemption, and also on the wages of the construction workers.
For tax year 2024, the City of Columbus has a total of Fifty-five (55) agreements requiring revenue sharing and the total amount of revenue to be shared is $5,774,772.91. Fifty-five (55) agreements are related to projects located in seven (7) different school districts with the revenue share subtotals as follows: $3,808,689.97 to the Columbus City School District for Thirty-four (34) agreements, $128,125.01 to the Gahanna Jefferson City School District for three (3) agreements, $1,084,465.39 to the Hilliard City School District for nine (9) agreements, $273,435.51 to the Hamilton Local School District for three (3) agreements, $281,338.85 to the Olentangy Local School District for two (2) agreements, $96,743.89 to the South-Western City School District for two (2) agreements and $101,974.29 to the Worthington City School District for two (2) agreements.
Emergency action is requested in order to expedite payment to the seven (7) school districts to compensate them for property tax revenues forgone due to tax abatements.
FISCAL IMPACT: The 2025 General Fund budget (citywide account) includes funding for these payments. An amount equal to 25 percent (25%) of the payments will be expended from the Income Tax Set Aside Subfund.
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