The 1-mill levy voters approved nearly a decade ago to fund in-county operations at Eastern Gateway Community College will no longer be collected, though Jefferson County residents shouldn’t expect to see their taxes go down because of it.

Auditor E.J. Conn said Friday the county budget commission — comprised of himself, Prosecutor Jane Hanlin and Treasurer Ray Agresta — voted to forego the remaining two years of the levy: That means it won’t be on the 2025 tax bills going out during the next couple of weeks or the 2026 assessments, either, though Conn said that doesn’t mean residents should expect their tax bills to go down “because in most cases they’re not, they’re actually going to go up because of the revaluation.”

He said the EGCC levy removal is, nonetheless, good news.

“We voted to remove the levy, due to the fact that it’s not being used for educational purposes,” Conn said. “They didn’t provide us with any evidence that the levy needed to continue — it’s up to them to provide the county with the evidence that they need the tax revenue in order to operate as an educational institution.”

That would have been hard to do, since EGCC months ago stopped enrolling students, laid off nearly all its employees and shuttered its buildings in the wake of a years-long battle with the U.S. Department of Education over how it was using federal aid meant to help low-income students earn degrees and the financial problems that ensued.

“It was abundantly clear that educational activities had ceased at EGCC,” Hanlin said. “As a result, officials in Jefferson County took the necessary steps to protect taxpayer dollars and remove that levy. We are all hopeful of a future where educational opportunities are again offered at the site, but we will always act to protect the citizens of Jefferson County and will continue to be mindful stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars.”

Agresta could not be reached for comment.

Conn, meanwhile, agreed it made sense to remove the EGCC levy, which would have generated about $1 million in 2025 based on the 2024 tax year valuations.

“It will not be on the bills that taxpayers receive in a week or so,” he said. “But overall, taxes on average and values are both going to increase due to the six-year revaluation.”

Revaluations are based on valid sales within individual neighborhoods, market conditions and other factors that would affect home value, like condition or damage. There’s also a property visit.

Ohio counties are revalued every six years. Jefferson was one of 19 counties to be reappraised in 2024, so the new valuations will be on the 2025 tax bills.

“Everybody in the state has to deal with it, I don’t have any control over it,” Conn said, pointing out most Ohio counties were much harder hit than Jefferson was.

“We fared well compared to most the counties across the state,” he said “It’s become a big issue because of the hot real estate market, the values are just going up and up and up — they did here, but not quite as bad as a lot of other counties in this state. I think we’re probably in the bottom five, easily. There were several counties that were up more than 40 percent on average.”