VOICES: A Band-Aid too small to cover the wound

Too little, too late. That is the best way to describe some of the talk around the Statehouse these days regarding efforts to provide Ohio property owners with much needed tax relief.

For almost two decades, state lawmakers have enacted one measure after another that results in moving a larger share of the state’s tax burden onto the backs of property owners. Actions like cutting the state income tax, slashing the Local Government Fund, gutting tax relief programs like the Homestead Exemption and property tax rollbacks, and the state’s failure to address Ohio’s school funding issue in a meaningful way have forced schools and other taxing authorities to turn to property owners and local property tax levies to fund essential services.

With property values rising due to the red-hot real estate market, some legislators are showing signs of wanting to address this tax-shifting trend, claiming they want to offer property owners some type of tax relief. Yet recent legislative actions and proposals fall far short of providing any significant assistance to those struggling to make ends meet.

A good example is a provision included in the state’s recent budget bill that indexes the amount of the Homestead Exemption to inflation starting in 2024. The legislature has failed to adjust the exemption amount since it was first set more than fifteen years ago, causing the savings power of the benefit to stagnate.

ExploreVOICES: Proposed legislation could help Ohioans with increased property taxes

Adjusting the exemption amount going forward is a step in the right direction, but the provision recently enacted fails to go far enough. My office estimates the measure included in the state budget will only save Homestead Exemption recipients in Montgomery County an additional $25 next year. This is hardly a life-changing outcome.

In a similar fashion, newly introduced House Bill 187 attempts to lower property taxes by altering the method used to determine property values in Ohio but fails to address the true issue at hand.

The property valuation process in Ohio is not broken. We have a tax problem in this state, not a value problem.

HB 187 would result in a lesser increase in taxes only for the 41 counties updating property values this year, and only by a modest amount. If enacted, many property owners will continue to face record-setting tax increases next year and have less money in their pockets. This proposal is simply too insignificant to help families put food on their tables or help individuals on fixed incomes remain in their homes.

If the legislature truly wants to provide meaningful tax relief to residential property owners, I have a few ideas:

Double the Homestead Exemption reduction, raising it to $50,000 and remove the income test to qualify.
Double the owner occupancy credit to 5%.
Reinstate Ohio’s property tax rollbacks.

Unless they are prepared to support real, substantial actions like these, our legislators will continue to offer Ohioans a Band-Aid too small to cover the entire wound – a fix that is too insignificant, too trivial to provide the people they serve with any real help.

Karl Keith is the Montgomery County Auditor.

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About the Author

Karl Keith