This is the math behind the current county commission proposal to remove the 2 mils of Property Tax that funds the county and replace it with a 0.45 increase to the county Sales Tax, bringing the county Sales Tax total to 6.95%. It aims to compare the tax relief for property owners to the new tax burden on taxable purchases. At what level of taxable spending does this proposal change from benefit to burden? Let’s start with the current system, the Property Taxes.

These are the Property Tax calculations for a $100,000 property:

Appraised Value = $100,000

The Property Tax only “sees” 35% of this Appraised Value, this is called the Assessed Value.

$100,000 [Appraised] × 0.35 [Percent] = $35,000 [Assessed]

The proposed Property Tax reduction from the county is 2 mils, $2 for every $1,000 in value.

$35,000 [Assessed] × 0.002 [Mils] = $70 [Yearly Tax]

So, $70 is how much would be saved yearly per $100,000 of Appraised market value for a property.

In 2023 the median home value in Wooster was $200,000, let’s work through that.

$200,000 [Appraised] × 0.35 [Percent] = $70,000 [Assessed]

$70,000 [Assessed] × 0.002 [Mils] = $140 [Yearly Tax]

Since then the property values around Wooster have gone up since then, so let’s run through a $250,000 property.

$250,000 [Appraised] × 0.35 [Percent] = $87,500 [Assessed]

$87,500 [Assessed] × 0.002 [Mils] = $175 [Yearly Tax]

Alright, so we have the amount of Property Tax relief from this proposal. But there will also be a 0.45% increase to Sales Tax. What does that really mean for us? Well, we can calculate how much we need to buy in order to equal that Property Tax relief. If we spend more than this number then we are paying more in tax. If we spend less than this number we will get tax relief.

Let’s start with the $70 per year Property Tax relief for a $100,000 property.

$70 [Yearly Tax] ÷ 0.0045 [Sale Tax] = $15,555 [Spent Yearly]

So if someone with a $100,000 property spends less than $15,555 per year on taxable purchases then they will have some level of tax relief. If they spend more than $15,555 on taxable purchases per year then they will be paying more tax.

For ease of comparison let’s break that $15,555 per year number down to a typical 2 week paycheck.

$15,555 [Spent Yearly] ÷ 26 [Paychecks Yearly = $598 [Paycheck Spending]

We’ll call it about $600. Now if someone with a $100,000 property spends less than $600 on taxable items per paycheck then they are paying less tax. If they spend more than $600 per paycheck then they are paying more tax. Obviously what we buy in a year or between paychecks can change a lot but these are the dollar targets.

Let’s go through that same comparison for a $200,000 and a $250,000 property as well.

For a $200,000 Appraised property:

$140 [Yearly Tax] ÷ 0.0045 [Sales Tax] = $31,111 [Spent Yearly]

$31,111 [Spent Yearly] ÷ 26 [Paychecks Yearly] = $1,196 [Paycheck Spending]

For a $250,000 Appraised property:

$175 [Yearly Tax] ÷ 0.0045 [Sales Tax] = $38,888 [Spent Yearly]

$38,888 [Spent Yearly] ÷ 26 [Paychecks Yearly] = $1,495 [Paycheck Spending]

I hope that this makes this comparison easier. If you have a $100,000 property you currently pay tax on then if you can spend $600 or less per paycheck on taxable items then this will be the same or help your tax burden. If your property is more you can multiply that $600 to get a target for your closest $100,000 value. So for $200,000 you double $600 to get a target of $1,200 per paycheck, for $300,000 you triple it to get a target of $1,800 per paycheck. Since I suspect $250,000 is the new median we calculated that above as well, call it a $1,500 target per paycheck.

This was an interesting point of comparison that I didn’t see anywhere else in the public discussions. Maybe I missed it. But I wanted to get this out there since I thought the comparison was clever. Thanks again to John Drouhard for his insight and calculations. He put good work into this for the community understanding.

If you have questions or comments on this plan for the county commissioners then you can contact all 3 of them at once at this single email: commissioners@wayneohio.org