John Marra, Timberlake Mayor
Opinion: End property tax to protect homeownership, restore fairness
In a recent Another Viewpoint opinion, Concord Township Administrator Andy Rose warns that eliminating property taxes would devastate Ohio communities. But the true threat to Ohioans is not tax reform—it’s the very system we have now, one that allows the government to seize your home even after your mortgage is paid off. That isn’t ownership—it’s permanent rent to the state.
Let’s be clear: property tax is a lien. If you fall behind — due to illness, fixed income, or rising costs — the government can and will take your home, auction it and keep the proceeds. This has happened to thousands of Ohio families, not because they were reckless, but because the system is fundamentally unjust.
Rose claims eliminating property taxes would devastate Ohio communities and cut off essential services. But that argument falls apart under scrutiny. Only about 20% of your property tax bill funds local services like police, fire, EMS and sanitation. These essential services can — and should — be billed directly, like trash, water, or sewer. It’s more transparent and more equitable.
The majority of property taxes — often more than 60% — goes to fund public schools. Yet the Ohio Supreme Court, in the DeRolph decisions, ruled that school funding is the state’s responsibility — not the homeowner’s. Property tax should not be the primary funding mechanism, especially when it punishes seniors, people without school-age children, and struggling families just trying to stay in their
homes.
And here’s a critical flaw in the current system: local services are delivered based on population and household count — not property value. A low valued home receives
the same police, fire protection and municipal services as a home valued at a million dollars. Yet one may pay 10 times more in taxes. That’s not fairness — it’s legalized inequity built into our tax code.
Rose also says property taxes are “stable and predictable.” But for many homeowners, especially in working-class neighborhoods, they are anything but. Mass appraisals — often conducted by out-of-state firms — can increase a
home’s taxable value by 30%, 50%, even 100% without a sale, consent, or vote, generating taxes on unrealized gains. These spikes are nearly impossible to challenge because of the mass appraisal methodology, and the burden of proof
lies unfairly with the homeowner.
Meanwhile, school districts automatically collect more from these valuation spikes due to Ohio’s 20-mill floor, even if voters never approved a new levy. It’s a blank check that bypasses the ballot box and grows every time the market does, creating an invisible tax hike with no accountability, and homeowners pay the price. More taxation on unrealized gains.
Let’s also ask: Who really benefits from the current system? It’s not seniors, single parents or fixed-income families. It’s bloated school administrations, tax lien buyers, and layers of bureaucracy that continue to grow even as student proficiency scores decline. Critics claim eliminating property taxes helps the wealthy — but wealthy
landowners don’t lose their homes over tax bills. Everyday people do.
This movement isn’t about gutting services — it’s about replacing a broken, valuation-based model with one based on population and usage. Local services can be billed as utilities. Schools can be funded through state-level income taxes, luxury sales taxes, or transaction fees — mechanisms that are voter-approved, tied to actual income or spending, and constitutionally sound.
The state has only one constitutional funding source for schools: income taxes. When legislators pass income tax cuts—as they have been and continue to do — they are, in effect, cutting school funding. These cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy while increasing the burden on homeowners.
The proposed amendment doesn’t strip funding. It restores ownership. It says that once you’ve paid off your home, you shouldn’t live in fear of losing it over a tax bill. That’s a principle Ohioans across the political spectrum can support.
We must stop confusing forced taxation with civic responsibility. If we want to protect seniors, young families and working Ohioans, we need to stop treating homeownership as a taxable event and start funding public services the right way — fairly, equitably and constitutionally.
We didn’t buy our homes to rent them back from the government. If you can lose it over a tax, you never really owned it. It’s time to end government control over your
home and put ownership back in the hands of Ohio families—where it belongs.
Categories: Community Activism, Real Estate Taxes