Staff report

GREENVILLE — Theodore O. Finnarn, a local Darke County attorney, has been reappointed for a record 46th year to the State of Ohio Current Agricultural Use Valuation (CAUV) Committee of the Tax Equalization Division of the Ohio Department of Taxation.

Finnarn was originally appointed right after he graduated with his law degree from the University of Toledo in 1976, and he helped to write the original statutory and regulatory laws on the CAUV. He is sometimes referred to as “Mr. CAUV.” This reappointment sets a state record for one of the longest-serving State Employee/Advisory Committee members for the State of Ohio.

Finnarn noted, “There was a tumultuous time of farm real estate tax protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the CAUV law, which I helped to create, alleviated the real estate tax burden on farmers so that they could pay their taxes in a reasonable amount and remain productive and stay on the farm. The CAUV law over the years has been recognized as a ‘farmland preservation’ tool and Ohio’s law has set the standard and been copied by other states.”

Finnarn stated that within the next few years he will be receiving his 50-year pin from the Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA) and that, likewise, he would continue to serve on the CAUV Advisory Board in order to complete a record 50 years.