On July, Republican lawmakers in the Ohio House of Representatives voted to overturn Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of a line in the state budget that would ban certain types of levies from being put on the ballot by local governments or school districts.
The reason House members thought this was so important that they needed to get together and have this vote even when their chamber was closed for renovation was because they saw this as a way to reduce the burden of property taxes.
In the wake of COVID-19, global supply chain disruption, a contraction of building materials, and changes in demographics caused substantial shifts in housing supply.
Many in Ohio have seen the value of their home increase precipitously in the years since 2020, especially in 2022-2024.
With three-year valuations coming in, many were hit with sticker shock of their new property taxes, and state lawmakers leapt into their fighting stances, ready to find a way to reduce the impact of property taxes on households.
The Ohio General Assembly commissioned a committee to study ways to reduce the burden of property taxes. This led to a series of provisions in the new state budget trying to reduce the burden of property taxes in the state.
The provision that was vetoed and the focus of the Ohio House override is focused on a specific type of levy: an emergency or replacement levy.
This is still a levy that has to go before voters, the same way any other property tax levy does.
The argument made by House members on the floor was that by banning the use of the phrase “emergency” or “replacement,” voters would not be “tricked” into voting for property taxes they didn’t believe in.
So basically, the diagnosis here is that property taxes are so burdensome, at least partially, because people mistakenly vote for them.
Ultimately, these sorts of policy changes to the property tax system will do little to reduce the burden of property taxes.
Yes, legislators can now go to their constituents and say “Hey, I went out there and voted even as the House chamber was under renovation to deliver property tax relief to you.”
But these are small administrative changes to the types of property taxes that are being put before voters. They will do little to reduce the burden of property taxes.
It is worth asking the bigger question: are property taxes really the problem residents of Ohio are struggling with?
Or is the real problem that property taxes grew in a short period of time relative to incomes?
Because that is unlikely to happen again soon with interest rates high and the global supply chain for building materials at a new equilibrium.
There is good reason to believe that legislators are stuck fighting the last war around property taxes.
So what can policymakers do?
They can improve upon the system by moving from a property tax to a land value tax, which falls less heavily on low-income renters and does not penalize people for developing their land.
They can invest in programs like early childhood and K-12 education which improve incomes in the long-run or the earned income tax credit and child tax credit which would improve incomes in the short-run.
Or they can keep beating around the bush, making small changes to the property tax system that do little more than to complicate an already-complicated system.