The nine Cuyahoga County school districts affected by a tax-rate calculation error will make up an estimated $28.5 million overcollection through reduced collections from certain levies, rather than refund checks. That means the repayment will be spread across future budgets; Parma City Schools has the largest amount to offset, at $12,710,639.
According to cleveland.com, the county did not adjust tax rates for several school districts after the 2024 reappraisal and before property taxes were billed in 2025. The districts are reducing collections from certain emergency levies over the next several years to offset the overcollection, the outlet reported.
The issue involves fixed-sum levies, which voters approve to raise a specific dollar amount rather than a fluctuating rate. Under Ohio's House Bill 920, rates for these levies are required to fall when property values rise, so districts do not collect more than voters approved. The required adjustment was not made for the nine districts before the 2025 bills went out.
Who Overcollected and How Much
The district-by-district overcollection totals reported by cleveland.com are: Garfield Heights, $4,094,838; North Royalton, $4,084,876; Maple Heights, $2,960,256; Euclid, $1,814,820; Brooklyn, $947,427; Fairview Park, $611,346; Independence, $510,766; and Warrensville Heights, $804,641. County spokeswoman Kelly Woodard said the affected districts are voluntarily reducing fixed-sum levy rates for two years to offset the overcollection, so taxpayers will pay less toward those levies during that period.
Woodard said the county's independent auditor and the Auditor of State determined the overcollection was not material for Cuyahoga County overall, despite the millions involved for individual districts. The county initially notified the districts in August that it was scheduling a special Board of Revision hearing on the matter, but later canceled it, cleveland.com reported. The Cuyahoga County Board of Revision is otherwise tasked with investigating and ruling on valid, timely valuation complaints, according to the county's own description of the board.
Parma's Treasurer Caught the Mistake
Cleveland.com reported that Parma City Schools treasurer Sean Nuccio spotted the discrepancy and alerted the county. Nuccio also negotiated a three-year adjustment plan for Parma, rather than the two years given to most of the other affected districts.
That extra flexibility matters because Parma's finances are already stretched thin. The district faces a $26 million budget shortfall and a potential state takeover by 2029, after failing multiple attempts to pass a new levy, according to WKYC. Nuccio said Parma has reserved funds to offset the reductions tied to the overcollection, but those reserves do not resolve the district's broader budget challenges, the same report states.
Not an Isolated Error
Cuyahoga County isn't alone in making this mistake. The county said seven other Ohio counties — Ashtabula, Carroll, Champaign, Fayette, Henry, Logan and Preble — also made the same tax-rate calculation error in 2025, per cleveland.com's reporting.
The reappraisal behind the rate calculations was substantial. The Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer released newly appraised property values on July 9, 2024; homeowner values across the county rose by about 32% on average, according to Kohrman Jackson Krantz. For a fixed-sum levy, higher property values generally mean a lower rate, because the aim is to keep total revenue at the voter-approved amount.
Even with that 32% jump in values, the actual revenue bump for most districts was modest. Ideastream Public Media reported that the estimated new revenue for Cuyahoga County school districts from the reappraisal averaged just 1.8% of their total yearly budgets — including an estimated $5.8 million for Cleveland Metropolitan School District and $2 million per year for Westlake City Schools. Cuyahoga County had also corrected its own earlier public estimates of those windfalls back in July 2024, according to a separate cleveland.com report at the time.
What state law and county records show
Ohio Revised Code §319.36 lists several options when collected charges are found to be erroneous clerical charges, including a refund warrant, credits against future taxes, or an installment undertaking, and gives the auditor discretion over the method. The statute does not establish that it governed the districts’ repayment plans, according to the Ohio Revised Code.
The county’s July 2024 announcement said proposed reappraisal results showed average home-value growth of 32% countywide, ranging from 15% in Hunting Valley to 67% in East Cleveland. Those figures describe changes in property valuations, not tax-rate changes, according to Cuyahoga County.
