Their proposed amendment would add three lines of text to the Ohio Constitution to state that “no real property shall be taxed,” either by law or by constitutional amendment.
The petitioners behind the amendment will need to gather over 413,000 valid signatures in order to get their proposed amendment on the ballot. A simple majority of voter support would pass it.
The petitioners got approval from the state after Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost determined that the petitioners’ summary fairly and truthfully reflected the content of the proposal, and the Ohio Ballot Board determined that the proposal could be contained in just one constitutional amendment.
One petitioner, Timberlake Mayor John Marra, told the Ohio Ballot Board that he views property taxes to be unfair, especially to seniors.
“Property taxes undermines true ownership,” Marra said. “When people can lose their homes over unpaid taxes, even after their mortgage is paid off, that is not freedom; it is a form of government control.”
On X, Ohio’s Republican Attorney General Dave Yost blamed the attempted amendment squarely on the Republican legislature, which has not yet passed substantial property tax reform even as much of the state has seen skyrocketing rates.
“Ohio’s broken, dysfunctional property tax is forcing people out of their homes with unvoted tax hikes,” Yost wrote. “The people are going to blow it up at the ballot box — and the resulting chaos will be a failure of the legislature, which knew better but would not act."
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.