AMHERST — Amherst councilmen, frustrated by losing money due to a property-tax abatement deal in a Lorain neighborhood that is part of the Amherst School District, served notice during a town hall-style meeting Thursday night that a class-action lawsuit was in the works.

If the retroactive part of the tax abatement isn’t removed as part of a settlement between Lorain and the county auditor’s office, city councilmen Glenn Loughrie and Joseph Gambish, along with resident Chuck Winiarski said they are ready to take legal action against county Auditor Mark Stewart.

Several of the estimated 70 residents in attendance objected to the plan, saying Stewart had been the one who stood up against the retroactive tax abatements, which gave more than 300 homeowners whose homes had been built prior to the 2006 Community Reinvestment Area program’s 15-year, 100 percent tax abatements.

“We agree with what (Stewart) has been doing,” said Matt Barrett, attorney for Loughrie, Gambish and Winiarski. But, legally, he said, this is the only option for getting this matter settled by a judge.

Loughrie said the objection isn’t to community development, it’s Lorain making a tax decision that affects Amherst without Amherst having any say. Residents got fired up after a planned 6.9-mill levy was passed, and the mill rate ended up going to 7.1 percent to cover the lost revenue from the tax-abated properties.

A few residents wanted to know why the Amherst Board of Education didn’t speak out or act sooner.

Superintendent Steve Sayers couldn’t speak for the board, but said he opposed property tax abatements in general, as well as the controversial retroactive ones in Lorain.

“Property tax abatements negatively impact schools,” he said, adding the district could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars if the retroactivity isn’t repealed.

He also said this matter wasn’t about Amherst residents vs. Lorain residents.

“The majority of people in our district from Lorain are paying taxes,” he said.

One Lorain resident in the Amherst district, Joyce Early, stood up and apologized for what Lorain had done to Amherst.

“I’m embarrassed about what our city government has done,” she said. “But you have most of the city’s support.”

About 1,500 students from Lorain attend Amherst Schools, about a third of the district’s total student population, Winiarski said.

Contact Melissa Hebert at 329-7129 or mhebert@chroniclet.com.

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