“As property values have increased in Ohio over the last decade, the resulting property tax increases have strained many family budgets and challenged the financial security of many on fixed incomes,” DeWine said.
DeWine has given the group until the end of September to provide “concrete proposals” that will help taxpayers but not unduly burden local taxing entities that rely on property taxes to provide essential services like schools, police, fire and EMA.
This will be the second group to examine that problem. The Joint Legislative Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform met eight times last year, received in-person and written testimony from 60 people and on the New Years Eve deadline delivered an 865-page report.
The report contained 21 recommendations for various ways the general assembly “should” act to address the problem but no favored fixes.
The report notes: “Given the complexities of the property tax system, these recommendations should not be considered as a comprehensive package. Some proposals may contradict others.”
When asked why the governor wants another group to study the issue, Dan Tierney, DeWine’s deputy director of Media Relations, said the study group will be reporting directly to the governor on issues he wants vetted and will probably have a little different focus.
“The governor always uses the example, sometimes if you press down on a balloon another part bubbles up because it’s all one interconnected system,” Tierney said. “So property taxes cannot be considered in a vacuum without what the system output is, which is the effect it has on schools and school funding. It’s not the only levy out there but its the biggest and most significant one.”
The House is returning from summer break on July 21 to vote on overriding three of DeWine’s vetoes, namely:
- Adjusting the school district 20-mill floor calculation to include emergency, substitute and other levies and income taxes. A Legislative Services report noted school district “property tax collections may be reduced by tens of millions to over a hundred million dollars annually.”
- Giving county budget commissions the authority to “unilaterally” reduce a levy passed by voters if they determine the funding isn’t necessary.
- Eliminate replacement tax levies for all taxing bodies and curtail school districts’ ability to levy fixed sum emergency and substitute emergency levies and school district income tax and fixed-sum property tax levies.
Senate Finance Chair Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, told this news outlet the Senate will likely follow suit and added the study committee is unnecessary, because the issues have already been thoroughly vetted through the legislative process.
The governor will be announcing the other members of the work group soon, Democratic Rep. Dan Troy from Willowick was on the previous committee and always expressed dismay they ended the exercise without making any concrete recommendations.
He said new bills like House Bill 335 — a $3.5 billion tax relief package that was partially included in the budget and vetoed by DeWine — needs vetting. He is glad DeWine has formed another group and hopes to be on it.
“On some of these changes that popped up in the last few weeks, like 335 and the 20-mill floor and the county budget commission and all that, these things need a little bit of discussion, a little bit of vetting, a little bit more study and certainly input from those governmental entities that would be impacted, by them,” he said. “There was this rush to judgement to just throw this all into the budget. I’m pleased we’re going to put a pause on that.”
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