Beth Blackmarr, the spokesperson for Citizens for Property Tax Reform, told this news outlet: “We’ve launched.”
“We’re going to have circulators everywhere,” she said. “We have probably thousands of people working across Ohio on this effort.”
She has said multiple times this was an “effort of last resort” because the state legislature has failed to give taxpayers who are being crushed by high property taxes any “meaningful” relief.
House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima told this media outlet “I think we need to do something dramatic and impactful” because the measure “has legs” and if it doesn’t pass this year they can try again in 2026.
“We need to do something dramatic here or clear or tangible or whatever word it is someone wants to use, to make the public know, OK we’re actually addressing these skyrocketing local taxes,” Huffman said. “Because I don’t think it’s going to be hard to get the signatures over the next year or so. Whether it passes or not I guess we’ll see, but if it does it’s a brave new world.”
Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, acknowledged if the issue passes, there would be serious repercussions.
“One thing that needs to be noted is that if anybody had the notion to eliminate property taxes it would have to be something that would be done over the course of a long time,” he said. “If we were to simply stop them in one day, that is, the last I heard, $17 (billion) to $19 billion that is coming in in some form or another, that’d be a pretty big hit to a lot of things. So we’ve heard the people loud and clear, we need to fix our property tax system.”
McColley told reporters, “We’ve got some ideas we’re kicking around that I think will make some serious improvements with property taxes,” but didn’t divulge what those things are.
The House-passed budget includes a new idea that hasn’t been proffered as a bill. It would provide an estimated $4 billion savings for taxpayers by forcing school districts to cut their cash carryover to 30%.
Huffman said they thought this plan was “dramatic and impactful” because schools collect roughly two-thirds of property taxes and are sitting on $10.5 billion collectively.
Critics say the measure — which could cost local school districts more than $500 million, according to an analysis by this news outlet — would force schools to spend money and punish them for being fiscally responsible.
The Senate is working on the budget right now and Huffman said “we don’t know if the Senate’s going to say that’s a great idea or you guys are daft.”
The final spending plan must be passed by June 30.
As of Thursday, there have been 18 House bills and seven Senate measures — a dozen or so are recycled from the last General Assembly — introduced to attack property tax reform.
The only other measure to really progress so far this year is eliminating replacement tax levies. It passed the House last month but hasn’t had a Senate hearing yet.
Huffman said he has told his caucus they need to do something big, maybe a combination of big things to address this problem before July 1.
About the Author