Photo: Brian Massie.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed several bills aimed at implementing property tax breaks, but property tax advocates are unimpressed and are continuing efforts to repeal them altogether.
“They’ll kick me out of the house”
When his dream house, as Brian Massie said, turned into a nightmare after 20 years.
“I saw property taxes go up 40%,” Massie said.
A Concord Township homeowner is frustrated with bills he never thought in his nearly 80 years of life would reach such high levels over the past two decades.
“If we stay on the path of ever-increasing property taxes, I will be kicked out of my house,” he said.
State lawmakers say they know it’s a problem, which is why they support the rule change.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has signed a slew of bills aimed at reducing property tax burdens.
DeWine says he wants to: “Achieve fair property tax relief while protecting our schools, police, fire departments and other vital services.
House Bills 186 and 335 limit the amount school districts can get from rising home values by tying tax increases to inflation. These bills passed both houses in a bipartisan fashion.
HB 309 allows county budget committees to reduce property taxes. It was passed mostly along party lines, but several Democrats joined Republicans to pass it, while several GOP members voted “no.”
HB 129 implements tax escalate controls on school fees.
HB 124 gives county auditors more oversight over the utilize of property tax sales information to determine property valuations.
“Ohio’s property taxes will be more understandable and predictable for taxpayers who pay property taxes,” said Pat Tiberi, chairman of the governor’s property tax task force.
But Massie is not impressed.
“Too little, too late,” he said. “If they can’t do anything for seniors, that’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, as they say.”
Voting proposal
I asked Massie if he thought Ohioans should take matters into their own hands because their representatives aren’t listening.
“That was basically our idea,” he said.
Massie serves on the Ohio Property Tax Elimination Committee and is currently collecting signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot. Supporters of Citizens for Property Tax Reform, another group with the same mission, say they have already collected more than 100,000 signatures.
Lawmakers are concerned, which explains the sudden action after years of allowing taxes to rise.
“I have to say that the threat of a ballot initiative is part of the driver,” said House Speaker Matt Huffman (Lima).
These efforts are not good enough, some Ohioans who have testified at the statehouse over the past year told News 5.
“Are these laws that have just entered into force enough to gain your support?” – I asked Massie.
“No, absolutely not,” he said.
The groups are trying to get the amendment on the November 2026 ballot.
Massie said the Ohio Property Tax Elimination Committee has already collected signatures from the required 44 of 88 counties and has hundreds of petitioners spread across the state. It needs approximately 415,000 valid signatures and intends to submit approximately 620,000.
Education
Schools have argued for months that these bills would take away much-needed dollars from children who are already struggling with state cuts in expected funding.
“We will talk about [cutting] staffing, which impacts what programs we might consider staying in Parma and those we may not be able to support,” Parma Schools Superintendent Dr. Scott J. Hunt told WEWS/Ohio Capital Journal. “These things certainly impact the quality of education we can provide to our students.”
While Massie said schools simply need to be more responsible with their money, leaders of Citizens for Property Reform Tax Reform are more supportive. Organizer Beth Blackmarr said lawmakers spent hundreds of millions on the Cleveland Browns’ stadium instead of funding schools fairly or focusing on property taxes.
This summer, state lawmakers awarded the Browns a $600 million grant to build a recent stadium in Brook Park, using unclaimed funds. Ohio’s Unclaimed Funds Division currently oversees approximately $4.9 billion in funds, including forgotten bank accounts, utility deposits, uncashed checks and more.
Blackmarr said the time spent refining the proposal could be better spent on issues facing citizens.
Districts fear the ballot proposal will make public schools obsolete.
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This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and are published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication on other news outlets because it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.
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