Taxes, especially property taxes, are a hot topic in Ohio.
A new proposal, House Bill 355, sponsored by state Reps. Angie King, R-Celina, and David Thomas, R-Jefferson, aims to increase the requisite threshold for raising local levies.
According to a Cleveland newspaper report, it would require 60% of voters to approve a local tax levy, including those for schools, public libraries, and police and fire services.
“These things should have broader consensus in the community because it impacts everyone in the community,” Cleveland.com quoted Thomas.
“We know we have to act,” Thomas added, according to the report. “Ohioans have seen outlandish spikes in their property taxes while they have not seen their incomes grow.”
However, not everyone is in favor of the proposal.
“This goes against the principle of majority rule,” Cleveland.com quoted Kent Scarrett, executive director of the Ohio Municipal League. “It really interferes in the ability of the majority of electors to initiate responsible funding strategies for their local governments.”
Thomas is also tied to other legislation that aims to give Ohioans property tax relief.
House Bill 335, The Property Tax Relief NOW Act, co-sponsored by Thomas and state Rep. Bill Roemer, R-Richfield, would deliver $3.5 billion in property tax relief. Proponents say it would mark the “most impactful” overhaul of the property tax system since 1976.
“This is bold legislation that will have a significant impact on property tax reform,” Roemer, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a release.
Another Thomas-sponsored measure, House Bill 309, would empower counties to lower taxes.
Christopher Galloway, the Lake County auditor and the second vice president of the County Auditors Association of Ohio, told the House Ways and Means Committee that the measure “won’t be talked about around kitchen tables like a statewide initiative to eliminate property taxes” but is an “effective means of controlling property taxes in the State of Ohio.
“Upon becoming County Auditor I quickly learned that our Budget Commission has been a rubber stamp on tax budgets for decades,” Galloway said in prepared testimony. “This was a function of successive Lake County Prosecutors having the legal opinion that we have no authority as a commission to do the things outlined in HB309," he said.
“It turns out that depending on a county prosecutors’ interpretation of decades old AG opinions or conflicting language in case law, counties are handling their duties and responsibilities differently. That’s no way to run government,” Galloway added. “While Lake County provides minimal perfunctory duties and a rubber stamp on tax budgets, to my south in Geauga County, their Prosecutor interprets that same language and case law differently and the outcome is very different. Actual roll back of levies when budgets do not require the full levied taxes.”
However, Keary McCarthy, executive director of the Ohio Mayors Alliance, expressed concerns about the “significant changes to the roles and responsibilities of existing county budget commissions.”
“This includes but is not limited to granting CBCs new authority to review and reduce voter-approved property tax levies of political subdivisions within a county,” McCarthy said in prepared testimony. “We appreciate that this authority is limited to property tax levies, but we have concerns related to how this new authority might be exercised and what, if any, jurisdictional limitations a CBC may have in exercising its authority.”
However, the Republican majority is not just looking to lower property taxes. The Ohio Senate recently passed its version of the state’s two-year budget, which includes a proposal to adopt a flat 2.75% income tax.
