Portage County property owners: The county treasurer’s office is mailing out second-half property tax bills, and the deadline to pay is set for Sept. 9.
Taxpayers are advised not to submit their payments until they receive their updated bills or verify the exact amount they owe via the treasurer’s website at portagecounty-oh.gov. Submitting an estimated payment may result in an overpayment, complicating the refund process.
Why the delay? Ohio House Bill 186, passed in March, introduced, among other tax reform and relief measures, a new inflation cap credit that prevents increases in school district taxes from exceeding the inflation rate.
To accommodate the changes, the Ohio Department of Taxation (and Portage County) needed time to calculate and apply the credits to individual tax rolls and to update necessary computer software systems.
New property tax statements should be arriving in Portage County mailboxes in the coming weeks. Property owners with mortgage escrow accounts are not required to take any action as their mortgage services will be managing the payments.
Wendy DiAlesandro
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.