Published Saturday, November 2, 2019
GEAUGA COUNTY SENIOR CITIZENS FACING HIGHER TAXES AND LIVING COSTS, JUST SAY NO WHEN YOU VOTE ON NOVEMBER 5
For all the information in the news about Geauga County’s being one of the wealthiest counties (# 2) in the state of Ohio, that statistic fails to take into consideration the number and percentage of residents in the county who are at least sixty years old—Senior Citizens. It also fails to take into consideration the number of Geauga Senior Citizens who are on fixed incomes but forced as homeowners to pay for the levies that are passed in this county by voters who, as non-homeowners, are exempt from real estate tax collections and tri-year tax revaluations conducted by the Geauga County Auditor’s Office. You may remember the tax reduction guaranteed to homeowners at the age of 65 (the Homeowner’s Exemption) in the past is no longer automatic*.
For Seniors on fixed income facing serious health issues and increased drug costs due to changes in Medicare, keeping up with Geauga County government thefts of taxpayer moneys , lack of transparency on government contracts, lack of bidding on government contracts over $50,000, and failure to rein-in excessive salaries of county administrators (example: Jim Adams, Department of Mental Health Services, who styles himself as “Chief Executive Officer”) Geauga County is rapidly becoming a prohibitive, alien place for Senior Citizens who must pay ever increasing real-estate taxes to support local and county elected and appointed high-rollers.
This writer has become aware in 2019 of mass departures of Geauga homeowners in her own neighborhood. Friends and acquaintances have shared their terror of having to pay prohibitive Geauga County real estate taxes. So they are leaving the county behind, leaving those who remain as homeowners to subsidize unresponsive county leaders who are demonstrating their inability and unwillingness to ask tough questions tobring the out-of-control school and local and county government issues back in line.
HOW MUCH LONGER WILL THIS FISCAL IRRESPONSIBILITY IN GEAUGA CONTINUE?
It’s time to make them all take notice that Geauga County voters have eaten too much crap in the last few years, only to be laughed at, ignored, disrespected, and cheated by government leaders who are used to getting their own way without any effort.
Read the attached article prepared for The Senior Citizens League (www.SeniorsLeague.org) by the late U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings about possible federal sources of financial relief for Senior Citizens. Mr. Cummings passed away on October 19, leaving Senior Citizens with one fewer champion working on behalf of Senior Citizens to find financial relief.
What is the only remaining source of relief for Senior Citizen homeowners/taxpayers stuck with living in Geauga County?
*Remember this was removed under the John Kasich era
