GOSHEN TOWNSHIP–Township voters will be presented with the question of whether to approve a replacement levy for the police department in the upcoming November election.

The board of trustees voted unanimously to submit the levy for inclusion on the ballot in November during its July 8 meeting. As a replacement levy it would update property valuations which were locked in when the department’s current 5.7 mill levy was first passed in 2006 to reflect their current valuations beginning if approved by voters in November.

At that meeting Fiscal Officer Michele Barratt said that due to the rise in property valuations since 2006 the levy was currently being collected at an effective rate of only 3.2 mills and that the township was seeking the replacement levy “to collect at the rate that residents approved in 2006” and to ensure the department can keep up with rising inflation over the last 19 years.

“In essence, we are currently paying 2025 bills on 2006 pay. The requested levy would update that to the approved rate,” said Barratt.

At the current property valuations, the levy collects approximately $113 for each $100,000 of property value annually, meaning a resident owning a home valued at $200,000 would pay twice that amount. If the replacement levy is approved in November that annual payment would increase by approximately $87 per $100,000 of property value for a new annual rate of approximately $200 per $100,000 of property value. The Mahoning County Auditor estimates that if approved the replacement levy would collect approximately $627,119 for the department annually.