By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
We found the following comments on the impact of bond debt by abolishing property taxes in a Facebook post. K. Vesna Mijic-Barisic responds to the Facebook post at the end of this article.
Facebook post from unknown citizen:
Prepare for a long flight in the Ohio Supreme Court over this potential constitutional crisis regarding hundreds of millions in local municipal bonds.
Article XII Section 11 of our Constitution states clearly that “No bonded indebtedness…shall be incurred or renewed unless…provision is made for levying and collecting annually by taxation an amount sufficient to pay the interest on said bonds…”
Our proposed constitutional amendment acts as a repeal of this section. This is where it gets interesting.
AG Yost certified the language as “fair and truthful”. 38 days later, 5 major law firms that act as bond counsel gave written testimony to the Ways and Means committee of the Ohio State House. They made it very clear that should this amendment pass, all General Obligation Bonds issued by municipalities will automatically enter a “technical default”, since they will violate the covenant that gave them backing. Default. Without a missed interest payment. This is a massive, MASSIVE cascading effect. And there is no backstop for this in the amendment. And the General Assembly doesn’t have anywhere near enough time to craft a remedy. It won’t happen. There is too much outstanding bond debt to possibly be able to cover the cost.
So how does this impact the amendment that may be placed on the ballot? Simply put, the certified summary voters have been signing is not a fair and truthful statement of what this amendment actually does. AG Yost certified the language on May 9, 2025. The bond counsel testimony documenting immediate default entered the official legislative record on June 16, 2025. 38 days apart. The certification came first. The most material legal consequence was documented second.
That sequence matters enormously.
Under Ohio Revised Code 3519.01, the Attorney General’s duty is to certify that the title and summary are fair and truthful statements of the proposed amendment. A summary that omits immediate statewide municipal bond default, which is now formally documented in official legislative testimony, cannot remain a fair and truthful statement in light of what the record now contains.
There is a second problem that makes this worse.
The petition language is locked. Every signature was collected under the certified summary as written. You cannot change the language without invalidating every signature collected and starting over entirely. There is no cure. There is no amendment process. The text that circulator packets carried to every signing event across 88 counties is the text. Period.
Here is Vesna’s response to the above Facebook post:
1. The FB poster’s premise and many other statements are wrong and fear mongering. The Constitutional Amendment to Abolish Property Taxes would add a new section to the Ohio Constitution, it won’t repeal any section. I would be interesting in learning the name of the individual and who s/he works for.
2. Whether any bonds would default remains to be seen. I haven’t read any of the bond documents and I doubt the FB poser has. Interesting that s/he knows about “5 major law firms that act as bond counsel gave written testimony to the Ways and Means committee of the Ohio State House.” Perhaps someone could make a public records request to obtain that written testimony.
3. Since no property taxes go to the State, why would the General Assembly have to craft a remedy to replace the property taxes going to municipalities? Interesting the FB poster doesn’t mention bonds issued by school districts. In my opinion, this is a red herring. If the State politicians cared, they would abide by the Constitution.
4. The title and summary have been certified by the AG as fair and truthful statements of the proposed constitutional amendment. The FB poster is wrong, fear mongering.
5. People should be outraged that our elected officials, the very people who take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution and to work in the best interest of citizens have been using our property as collateral for years for their pet projects.
6. The one thing I agree with is that there will be fights – a fight to get on the ballot, a fight to win at the ballot box, and a fight when it passes. I pray the Constitutional Amendment gets on the ballot, that it passes, and that we find some big, powerful litigators to help in the event of litigation.
Sincerely,
Vesna
Categories: Lake, Real Estate Taxes, State of Ohio, Uncategorized