While possible changes to Ohio’s property taxes are set to dominate lawmakers’ work when they return to Columbus next week, the state’s top law enforcement officer wants county officials to lead the charge.
Otherwise, Buckeye State residents might get their way and eliminate property taxes, thanks to a potential ballot measure.
“Ohioans are as angry as I’ve ever seen them – and rightly so,” Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement. “These inflationary tax increases are hurting everyone and, in some cases, are forcing people out of the homes they worked their entire lives for.”
Yost wants elected county officials to form a coalition to address property taxes before a citizen-led ballot initiative eliminates them.
According to a news release, Yost told the Ohio Council of County Officials, which represents Ohio’s county elected officials, that between 2020 and 2024, property taxes in the Buckeye State jumped nearly 19%, or about $3.8 billion. The attorney general, who flirted with a run for governor in 2026, said residential and agricultural property owners saw the largest share of the tax burden, primarily stemming from increased property valuations.
Yost, a former county auditor and state auditor, said that schools, counties, and local governments, which use property taxes to fund operations, should step up and lead the way on property-tax reform before voters eliminate the tax.
“Lead now, or the people will surely blow up the property-tax system,” Yost said. “Reform will be painful, but not nearly as painful as trying to replace $20 billion in revenue that supports schools and local government.”
In passing House Bill 96, the state’s two-year budget, several state lawmakers touted its “historic property tax relief.” However, in signing the spending plan, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued various line-item vetoes specific to property tax reform.
Additionally, last week, DeWine appointed a pair of former state lawmakers to lead the Property Tax Reform Working Group. The governor informally announced the group, which is tasked with exploring property tax relief in the Buckeye State.
Former state Reps. Bill Seitz and Pat Tiberi, both Republicans, will co-chair the working group. Tiberi is a former congressman, president, and CEO of the Ohio Business Roundtable.
But that might not be enough for state lawmakers who will return to Columbus on July 21 to focus on three property-tax provisions that Republican Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed: 55, 65, and 66.
Last month, leaders of the Committee to Eliminate Property Taxes said they didn’t have enough signatures to place the ballot initiative on the November ballot. But they promised to keep pushing the initiative on the ballot and letting Ohioans decide whether to eliminate property taxes.
Ohio Sen. Louis W. Blessing, III, R-Colerain Township, said property taxes are a bigger issue today than when he joined the state legislature in the 2010s. He blamed high valuations spurred on by “massive asset inflation during the pandemic” as helping to drive the higher taxes.
“With property taxes at the center of Ohio’s political debate, and a looming ballot initiative as part of the backdrop, lost in the discussion is the philosophy behind property taxation,” the lawmaker said in a statement last month.
“Respectfully, most proposals seem to be taking a meat axe to our system of property taxation without considering that drastic, across-the-board cuts, or ending them entirely, can actually make things much worse,” Blessing added. “A metaphor for the ballot proposal is panic in the face of a grease fire, and reaching for the water.”
