The $160.02 in tax breaks on 31 Bradford Street and 624 Oak Street were received between 2007 and 2009, the auditor’s office said.
ELECTION 2018: Turner criticizes Gasper comment about Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Gasper and her husband “actually reached out to us, they said they wanted to make it right and they have offered to pay back the $160.02 to the county,” said Mike Brill, a spokesman for Montgomery County Auditor Karl Keith. “They just volunteered to do it … Since they no longer own these properties, there would be no way for us to go back and collect this money.”
The company is valued at or below $500,000 and is wholly owned by Gasper, according to her federal financial disclosure. In 2014, she told the Dayton Daily News her involvement with the company is a “philanthropically motivated project.” A spokeswoman said Gasper receives no income from the company.
Gasper said she “immediately” contacted the auditor to address Turner’s allegation.
“If he is trying to intimidate me, it’s not working,” Gasper said in a statement, referring to Turner. “Our citizens deserve candidates that can compete on merit in an authentic manner. It appears the incumbent is interested in neither.”
At a press conference Monday, Turner declined to discuss a host of allegations his campaign has made against Gasper. Among them, the campaign accused Gasper’s company of mistakenly receiving the non-business tax credit on the two properties — something the Montgomery County Auditor’s office said is not true. The Turner campaign has not answered a list of questions Friday from the Dayton Daily News.
“You’ll be getting a response,” Turner said. “We’ll be emailing you just like you emailed me.”
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The owner-occupancy credit is meant to ease the tax burden for homeowners. It was first created in 1979 and later amended to only apply to tax levies created prior to November 2013. The state of Ohio reimburses local governments for the reduction.
Last year, the Dayton Daily News found tax credits were claimed by thousands of registered rentals, business properties or people who claim a primary residence on more than one property. The newspaper's investigation resulted in thousands of dollars being returned to the county and removed more than 6,000 properties from the tax credit list.
Property owners who are aware they are improperly receiving a credit and do not report it can face misdemeanor charges, state taxation department officials told the Dayton Daily News last year. A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Taxation last week told the newspaper the office was not aware of anyone ever being prosecuted for incorrectly receiving the tax cut.
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