PUBLIC NOTICE

The Annual Financial Reports of the Greene County Health District,
Greene County Regional Planning, Greene County Soil and Water, and the Greene County Park District for 2007 have been completed. The reports are available for inspection at the office of Luwanna A. Delaney, Greene County Auditor, 69 Greene Street, Room 200, Xenia, Ohio 45385.

Thank you for your recent emails inquiring about property information on our Web Site.

This office is charged with, among other things, the valuation of all parcels of real estate in Greene County.

All our documents are, by law, public record. The law makes them public record for a very good reason: the light of day ensures that government is accountable to the people it serves, and that there are no "back room" deals going on about property values. To quote newspaper pioneer E.W. Scripps: "Give light, and the people will find their own way."

A second compelling reason to publish this information on the Web is to promote the accuracy of the database, from which taxes are derived. We collect more than 200 pieces of data on more than 70,000 real estate parcels. Public review of these records - including comparisons by citizens with the neighbors' properties - has resulted in correction of several errors.

In short, the web site promotes fairer property valuation, and taxation, and greater governmental accountability. These functions would be compromised by cutting data out of the database.

This information is available in many other places on the internet. Taking data out of our database will do virtually nothing to increase your privacy but will compromise the usefulness of the database.

As an option, you may convey your property into a trust, which will then be listed as the owner.

I hope you will at least appreciate and understand the reasons behind our policy decision. Privacy is among the most important of concerns -- but privacy in the actions of government will always be a friend of tyranny.