(A) On or before the twenty-fifth day of July of each year, the tax commissioner shall make and certify to the county auditor of each county an estimate of the amount of the local government fund to be allocated to the undivided local government fund of each county for the ensuing calendar year, adjusting the total as required to account for subdivisions receiving local government funds under section5747.502of the Revised Code.
(B) At each annual regular session of the county budget commission convened pursuant to section5705.27of the Revised Code, each auditor shall present to the commission the certificate of the commissioner, the annual tax budget and estimates, and the records showing the action of the commission in its last preceding regular session. The commission, after extending to the representatives of each subdivision an opportunity to be heard, under oath administered by any member of the commission, and considering all the facts and information presented to it by the auditor, shall determine the amount of the undivided local government fund needed by and to be apportioned to each subdivision for current operating expenses, as shown in the tax budget of the subdivision. This determination shall be made pursuant to divisions (C) to (I) of this section, unless the commission has provided for a formula pursuant to section5747.53of the Revised Code. The commissioner shall reduce the amount of funds from the undivided local government fund to a subdivision required to receive reduced funds under section5747.502of the Revised Code.
Nothing in this section prevents the budget commission, for the purpose of apportioning the undivided local government fund, from inquiring into the claimed needs of any subdivision as stated in its tax budget, or from adjusting claimed needs to reflect actual needs. For the purposes of this section, "current operating expenses" means the lawful expenditures of a subdivision, except those for permanent improvements and except payments for interest, sinking fund, and retirement of bonds, notes, and certificates of indebtedness of the subdivision.
(C) The commission shall determine the combined total of the estimated expenditures, including transfers, from the general fund and any special funds other than special funds established for road and bridge; street construction, maintenance, and repair; state highway improvement; and gas, water, sewer, and electric public utilities operated by a subdivision, as shown in the subdivision's tax budget for the ensuing calendar year.
(D) From the combined total of expenditures calculated pursuant to division (C) of this section, the commission shall deduct the following expenditures, if included in these funds in the tax budget:
(1) Expenditures for permanent improvements as defined in division (E) of section5705.01of the Revised Code;
(2) In the case of counties and townships, transfers to the road and bridge fund, and in the case of municipalities, transfers to the street construction, maintenance, and repair fund and the state highway improvement fund;
(3) Expenditures for the payment of debt charges;
(4) Expenditures for the payment of judgments.
(E) In addition to the deductions made pursuant to division (D) of this section, revenues accruing to the general fund and any special fund considered under division (C) of this section from the following sources shall be deducted from the combined total of expenditures calculated pursuant to division (C) of this section:
(1) Taxes levied within the ten-mill limitation, as defined in section5705.02of the Revised Code;
(2) The budget commission allocation of estimated county public library fund revenues to be distributed pursuant to section5747.48of the Revised Code;
(3) Estimated unencumbered balances as shown on the tax budget as of the thirty-first day of December of the current year in the general fund, but not any estimated balance in any special fund considered in division (C) of this section;
(4) Revenue, including transfers, shown in the general fund and any special funds other than special funds established for road and bridge; street construction, maintenance, and repair; state highway improvement; and gas, water, sewer, and electric public utilities, from all other sources except those that a subdivision receives from an additional tax or service charge voted by its electorate or receives from special assessment or revenue bond collection. For the purposes of this division, where the charter of a municipal corporation prohibits the levy of an income tax, an income tax levied by the legislative authority of such municipal corporation pursuant to an amendment of the charter of that municipal corporation to authorize such a levy represents an additional tax voted by the electorate of that municipal corporation. For the purposes of this division, any measure adopted by a board of county commissioners pursuant to section322.02,4504.02, or5739.021of the Revised Code, including those measures upheld by the electorate in a referendum conducted pursuant to section322.021,4504.021, or5739.022of the Revised Code, shall not be considered an additional tax voted by the electorate.
Money in a reserve balance account established by a county, township, or municipal corporation under section5705.13of the Revised Code shall not be considered an unencumbered balance or revenue under division (E)(3) or (4) of this section. Money in a reserve balance account established by a township under section5705.132of the Revised Code shall not be considered an unencumbered balance or revenue under division (E)(3) or (4) of this section.
If a county, township, or municipal corporation has created and maintains a nonexpendable trust fund under section5705.131of the Revised Code, the principal of the fund, and any additions to the principal arising from sources other than the reinvestment of investment earnings arising from such a fund, shall not be considered an unencumbered balance or revenue under division (E)(3) or (4) of this section. Only investment earnings arising from investment of the principal or investment of such additions to principal may be considered an unencumbered balance or revenue under those divisions.
(F) The total expenditures calculated pursuant to division (C) of this section, less the deductions authorized in divisions (D) and (E) of this section, shall be known as the "relative need" of the subdivision, for the purposes of this section.
(G) The budget commission shall total the relative need of all participating subdivisions in the county, and shall compute a relative need factor by dividing the total estimate of the undivided local government fund by the total relative need of all participating subdivisions.
(H) The relative need of each subdivision shall be multiplied by the relative need factor to determine the proportionate share of the subdivision in the undivided local government fund of the county; provided, that the maximum proportionate share of a county shall not exceed the following maximum percentages of the total estimate of the undivided local government fund governed by the relationship of the percentage of the population of the county that resides within municipal corporations within the county to the total population of the county as reported in the reports on population in Ohio by the department of development as of the twentieth day of July of the year in which the tax budget is filed with the budget commission:
Where the proportionate share of the county exceeds the limitations established in this division, the budget commission shall adjust the proportionate shares determined pursuant to this division so that the proportionate share of the county does not exceed these limitations, and it shall increase the proportionate shares of all other subdivisions on a pro rata basis. In counties having a population of less than one hundred thousand, not less than ten per cent shall be distributed to the townships therein.
(I) The proportionate share of each subdivision in the undivided local government fund determined pursuant to division (H) of this section for any calendar year shall not be less than the product of the average of the percentages of the undivided local government fund of the county as apportioned to that subdivision for the calendar years 1968, 1969, and 1970, multiplied by the total amount of the undivided local government fund of the county apportioned pursuant to former section5739.23of the Revised Code for the calendar year 1970. For the purposes of this division, the total apportioned amount for the calendar year 1970 shall be the amount actually allocated to the county in 1970 from the state collected intangible tax as levied by section5707.03of the Revised Code and distributed pursuant to section5725.24of the Revised Code, plus the amount received by the county in the calendar year 1970 pursuant to division (B)(1) of former section5739.21of the Revised Code, and distributed pursuant to former section5739.22of the Revised Code. If the total amount of the undivided local government fund for any calendar year is less than the amount of the undivided local government fund apportioned pursuant to former section5739.23of the Revised Code for the calendar year 1970, the minimum amount guaranteed to each subdivision for that calendar year pursuant to this division shall be reduced on a basis proportionate to the amount by which the amount of the undivided local government fund for that calendar year is less than the amount of the undivided local government fund apportioned for the calendar year 1970.
(J) On the basis of such apportionment, the county auditor shall compute the percentage share of each such subdivision in the undivided local government fund and shall at the same time certify to the tax commissioner the percentage share of the county as a subdivision. No payment shall be made from the undivided local government fund, except in accordance with such percentage shares.
Within ten days after the budget commission has made its apportionment, whether conducted pursuant to section5747.51or5747.53of the Revised Code, the auditor shall publish a list of the subdivisions and the amount each is to receive from the undivided local government fund and the percentage share of each subdivision, in a newspaper or newspapers of countywide circulation, and send a copy of such allocation to the tax commissioner.
The county auditor shall also send a copy of such allocation by ordinary or electronic mail to the fiscal officer of each subdivision entitled to participate in the allocation of the undivided local government fund of the county. This copy shall constitute the official notice of the commission action referred to in section5705.37of the Revised Code.
All money received into the treasury of a subdivision from the undivided local government fund in a county treasury shall be paid into the general fund and used for the current operating expenses of the subdivision.
If a municipal corporation maintains a municipal university, such municipal university, when the board of trustees so requests the legislative authority of the municipal corporation, shall participate in the money apportioned to such municipal corporation from the total local government fund, however created and constituted, in such amount as requested by the board of trustees, provided such sum does not exceed nine per cent of the total amount paid to the municipal corporation.
If any public official fails to maintain the records required by sections5747.50to5747.55of the Revised Code or by the rules issued by the tax commissioner, the auditor of state, or the treasurer of state pursuant to such sections, or fails to comply with any law relating to the enforcement of such sections, the local government fund money allocated to the county may be withheld until such time as the public official has complied with such sections or such law or the rules issued pursuant thereto.
Last updated July 30, 2025 at 11:26 AM