Hanni disputes taxes sought by county auditor
Judge challenges Meacham on legality of ending farm discounts
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YOUNGSTOWN -- When Mahoning County Auditor Ralph Meacham removed agriculture property tax reductions from four parcels owned by Appeals Court Judge Mark A. Hanni because they didn't meet the program's criteria and Hanni never filed required forms, the judge went to court -- and then dropped the case.
But Hanni said the matter is not over.
Hanni asked Wednesday to dismiss the administrative appeal against Meacham, a fellow Republican, in county common pleas court -- less than three weeks after it was filed -- that states he owes $4,380.64 in recoupment charges for tax years 2023, 2024 and 2025. The four Coitsville properties, totaling 125.12 acres, received tax reductions through the state's Current Agricultural Use Value program.
Hanni said he had the case dismissed "to preserve my rights. Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Leonard. D. Hall later advised me (after filing) that the challenge should first have been filed with the Mahoning County Board of Revision under (state law). I therefore voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit. That was a procedural correction, not a concession on the merits."
Hanni said he and his nephews inherited the wooded properties from his father, Don L. Hanni Jr., after his 2008 death.
Meacham said his office has no record of Hanni ever applying for a CAUV waiver, even though he received the tax reduction for years.
Meacham said Hanni was repeatedly asked by his office in 2020 to submit the application and failed to do so. In 2023, Hanni was contacted again and said he would provide an application and a required woodland management plan to show timber harvesting plans at the properties, but never did, Meacham said. That occurred again in 2024 and 2025, Meacham said.
"We can find no application for any of those properties," Meacham said. "We have some correspondence that stated it would happen, but it never happened."
The auditor's office began contracting this year with the Mahoning Soil & Water Conservation District to review all CAUV filings and determined Hanni's four properties in Coitsville did not meet the program's requirements.
Meacham said: "We treat everyone alike. It's only fair to all of the taxpayers to determine if people in the CAUV belong in it. If not, they shouldn't be there. It's a matter of fairness and treating everyone according to the law. It's not a farm, and he was not farming."
For property tax purposes, farmland devoted exclusively to commercial agriculture may be valued according to its current use rather than at its "highest and best" potential use under the CAUV program, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation.
The department states: "By permitting values to be set well below true market values, the CAUV normally results in a substantially lower tax bill for working farmers."
To qualify, during the three years preceding an application for the CAUV, 10 or more acres must be devoted to commercial agriculture use, or if under 10 acres are devoted exclusively to commercial agriculture use, the farm must produce an average yearly gross income of at least $2,500.
In Hanni's administrative appeal, filed Aug. 27, he wrote: "The decision of the county auditor was arbitrary, unreasonable, contrary to law and against the manifest weight of evidence as the subject property meets all statutory requirements for agricultural use and qualifications under Chapter 929 and related provisions of the Ohio Revised Code."
Hanni said: "The wooded acreage is being inspected and monitored for commercial timber production and future selective harvesting by Urie Byler of Eastern Hardwoods, an experienced timberman. Ohio law expressly recognizes the production of timber for a commercial purpose as an agriculture use."
Under state law, commercial timber production requires a woodland management plan to qualify. Noncommercial timber is covered if it sits on land contiguous to an otherwise eligible parcel under common ownership.
Meacham said no application or woodland management plan has ever been filed by Hanni.
The judge said the auditor issued a July 31 notice removing the four parcels from CAUV and assessing the $4,380.64 in recoupment charges. Hanni said he received the notice by email on Aug. 25 and filed the administrative appeal in court two days later, "immediately before what I understood to be the filing deadline to appeal."
Hanni said: "The notice stated that the county had not received requested CAUV applications and woodland-management documentation and that its inspection indicated the parcels did not qualify. That determination is what I intended to challenge."
After Hall told him the board of revision was the proper first step, Hanni said he withdrew the case and will handle it through the board.
Hanni said: "Taxes are too high, and taxed-off property owners like me have every right to challenge valuations and CAUV determinations through the lawful review process."
Also, online county auditor records show that two of the four parcels, both on Johnson Road, have delinquent property taxes. An 11.57-acre parcel is $1,287.85 delinquent and an 11.55-acre property is $1,240 delinquent.
County auditor records show Hanni typically has paid only one of two annual tax bills for at least the past few years and sometimes it's a partial payment.
Hanni said: "My Republican affiliation is a matter of public record, but it has no bearing on either the proper forum for this challenge or the merits of the underlying CAUV determination."
Hanni was elected as a Republican in 2022 to the 7th District Court of Appeals. Because of the state's age-limit law for judges, Hanni couldn't seek reelection in 2028. He ran and won the Republican primary in May for a different six-year seat on the court of appeals. Hanni will face Democrat Katherine E. Rudzik, the chief deputy clerk of courts for Mahoning County in the Nov. 3 election. If Hanni wins, he would stay on the appeals court four years longer than if he had not run for a different seat.
Meacham, a Republican first elected in 2014, is seeking a fourth four-year term in the Nov. 3 election. He is being challenged by Democrat Dalton Bosze.