| Governor DeWine recently vetoed important property tax reform provisions included in Ohio’s new state budget — reforms designed to protect homeowners and restore fairness to our property tax system.
Ohio REALTORS® helped craft these practical solutions after more than a year of hearings, testimony from nearly 100 witnesses, and a comprehensive legislative report outlining clear recommendations. Many of these recommendations were included in the final budget — but unfortunately, Governor DeWine vetoed them.
Now we need your help. It’s critical that lawmakers hear directly from you to override these vetoes and deliver the taxpayer protections Ohio families deserve.
These reforms would accomplish the following:
- Require current emergency and substitute tax levies to be included in the 20-mill floor for school districts. This would ultimately bring more accountability to how school districts manage their property tax revenue and millage and will protect against spikes in unvoted property taxes.
- Grant county budget commissions authority to reduce the rate on any voter-approved tax levy, excluding debt levies, if the commission finds the revenue excessive or not needed. This would increase transparency, enhance local control over property taxes, and allow potential levy reductions.
- Prevent all taxing authorities from proposing replacement tax levies and stop schools from putting certain emergency or combined tax levies on the ballot. This would limit repeated tax increases and protect taxpayers from constant ballot-driven tax hikes.
These changes do not cut school funding. They simply limit unchecked tax growth and protect taxpayers from surprise hikes they didn’t vote for.
Rather than delay action further with yet another study group, it’s time to follow through on reforms that have already been carefully studied and fully vetted.
We need your help today. Please contact your state legislators and urge them to override the Governor’s vetoes and keep these important taxpayer protections in place.
Now we need your help. It’s critical that lawmakers hear directly from you to override these vetoes and deliver the taxpayer protections Ohio families deserve.
When you take action, you’ll see a pre-filled message to lawmakers , but you can (and are encouraged to) personalize it with your own story experiences. Lawmakers pay attention when they hear directly from constituents like you.
Learn more about why these reforms are so important in this op-ed from the Ohio Taxpayer Protection Coalition: read here. |
