Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken won’t be allowed to lower his Toledo home’s valuation, which would have allowed him to pay less in taxes, the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals recently decided.
The three-member tax board’s decision, issued last month, upheld the Lucas County auditor’s most recent $418,600 valuation of Mr. Gerken’s River Road property that is adjacent to the Maumee River. More than two years ago the property had been valued at $358,000, county records state.
Mr. Gerken and his wife, Polly Taylor-Gerken, believed the valuation had jumped unusually high and appealed it in 2022. They hired an appraiser who valued the property at $340,000.
But the state tax board, in its decision , said the Gerkens had not provided enough evidence of the lower valuation and called into question the appraiser’s methods.
“All I can do is say, ‘Thank you for going through the process.’ I got a fair hearing,” Mr. Gerken said Tuesday of the tax board’s decision.
The Gerkens’ appeal was complicated, not only because Mr. Gerken is a commissioner and Ms. Taylor-Gerken is on the Toledo Public Schools board, but also because Mr. Gerken is chairman of the county’s Board of Revision, whose job is to hear such property valuation appeals from residents. The other two Board of Revision members are the county auditor and treasurer, who have their budgets set by Mr. Gerken and the other county commissioners.