Ohio bill seeks to stop property tax hikes

COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) – There are at least a dozen bills at the statehouse to bring Ohioans property tax relief and one took a step forward on Tuesday afternoon by passing the House Ways and Means Committee by a 10-6 vote.

“We want people to be able to thrive and live in their homes and not be taxed out of their homes,” Representative Adam Mathews (R-Lebanon) said.

Representatives Mathews and Thomas Hall (R-Madison Township) are sponsoring House Bill 344, to eliminate “replacement property tax levies.”

“We want there to be transparency,” Mathews said.

When one goes to the polls, there are several different property tax levies they could see on their ballot. A “renewal levy” reinstates an already existing one, a “renewal with an increase,” reinstates an already existing one with an increase, and a “replacement” recalculates property taxes owed based on the latest valuation of one’s home, oftentimes resulting in an increase.

“Almost every replacement levy results in a tax increase to homeowners,” Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee Representative Bill Roemer (R-Richfield) said.

“These are the types of taxes that people can’t get away from and it functions almost like a capital gain,” Mathews said. “Your house is the same, it is providing the same benefit to you, but you’re being taxed at an increased rate.”

Lawmakers said they want to get rid of replacement levies because most times, voters don’t know it will cause an increase, or do not have the time to research each levy to figure that out.

“When you’re voting on a levy that’s not going to increase your property taxes and you find out some months later it did, that can be devastating,” Roemer said. “That can be a couple hundred dollars a month.”

Roemer said in the state’s November election, replacement levies passed at an 89% rate across the state, and renewal with increased levies passed at an 86% rate.

“The passing rates are almost the same, but the information and transparency is much more prevalent with renewal with increase,” he said.

The ranking member of the committee, Representative Daniel Troy (D-Willowick) said replacement levies not only increase property taxes but can sometimes shift more of the burden onto property owners.

“Once you go to replacement levies, you have wiped out any state participation in helping the local taxpayer,” Troy said.

While he said he is generally supportive of the elimination, he said a clarification in the replacement levy law might be better than an elimination. He stated he thinks requiring that the replacement levy spell out exactly what that would mean for property taxes is a good middle ground.

“So, if you want to do a replacement levy, you can do it, but let’s eliminate any possibilities of deceiving the voters on this,” Troy said.

House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) said he is supportive of HB344, and it will “probably” get a House vote next week.

“A replacement levy is probably the most complex levy to determine what it’ll cost taxpayers,” he said. “It’s really a truth-in-advertising kind of bill.”

Troy said, he generally does not have a problem with that portion of the bill, it is another piece of the legislation he takes issue with. In July 2022, House Bill 126 became effective. The law intended to “limit a political subdivision from filing a property tax valuation complaint against property it does not own.”

But in Columbus, some entities found a loophole. HB344 aims to close that, by eliminating any work-around, like a hired third party filing that complaint.

“It says even if you’re associated with a school district, social service agency or township, you can’t file with an individual or business to have their property tax increase,” Roemer said.

“I’ve always been a firm believer that you don’t change the law in 88 counties to address a problem in one,” Troy said. “It’s like everything else with property taxes, it is extremely confusing, extremely complex.”

Troy called that part of the bill “dangerous,” as he said if large commercial property values cannot be challenged when they are undervalued, he worries it will shift the burden to every-day homeowners.

“This is more of the tax shifting because we are protecting large commercial properties and lowering their tax burden, which basically shifts that tax burden to residential homeowners,” he said. “I don’t want to see anybody overburdened by the property tax system, but I also don’t want to see anyone under burdened at the expense of those who are being overburdened.”

Troy said that portion of the legislation is where he and his democrat colleagues on the committee took the most issue with. But he said he is confident that the conversations about that provision will continue in the Senate.

In the meantime, Troy said he wants to work on a more comprehensive approach to help give Ohio property owners more relief, rather than putting “a band-aid here and a band-aid there.”

If HB344 does pass the House, it will need to go through the Senate committee process and pass there too before ultimately heading to the governor’s desk.

HB344 will not provide for immediate property tax relief to Ohioans, but Mathews said this bill is not the end of the conversation.

“This bill does a great job of setting the stage in the future, so our voters have the power to control property taxes going into the future,” he said. “However, we’ll continue to work on more immediate relief too.”

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