Your annual property tax bill is determined by the taxable value of your property multiplied by the tax rate levied by Cuyahoga County, your city, your school district and your library district. Your taxable value is 35% of market value for real property.

There are two factors that can cause your annual tax bill to increase:

• An "additional" or "replacement" levy passed within your community in the last year for county, city, school, or library purposes.
• An increase in your home's value during a triennial update (every three years), a reappraisal (every six years), or new construction on a home.

Your taxes support your city, county, school district, and library. Approximately 60% of your tax bill is distributed to your school system.

House Bill 920 is a property tax reform measure passed by the State legislature in 1976. The purpose of HB 920 is to keep inflation from increasing property taxes on voted levies. HB 920 reduces tax rates to a level that will generate only the amount of money originally approved by the voters. The HB 920 credit reduces the full voted rate to the effective rate.

A mill is $1 for every $1,000 of assessed valuation.

There are three classes of taxpayers within each taxing district:

• Residential/Agricultural,
• Commercial/Industrial,
• Public Utility/Tangible Personal Property.

No. Public Utilities/Tangible Personal Property taxpayers are taxed at the full voted rate in their community. Residential/Agricultural and Commercial/Industrial taxpayers are taxed at the "effective" rate for their respective classes.

A renewal levy renews an existing tax for an specific period of time. There is no additional impact on taxes.

A replacement levy replaces the current "effective" tax rate with the voted rate of the levy. This causes an increase in taxes.

An additional levy increases taxes by the total amount of mills proposed.