By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall, Average Citizen
State lawmakers are finally starting to get the message that Ohio taxpayers have had enough of the lawmakers’ continued lack of concern about the ever-increasing property taxes pricing people out of their homes that they have worked all their lives to achieve.
We will continue our efforts to get our citizens led initiative for a constitutional amendment to abolish property taxes on the ballot so that the taxpayers can tell the power brokers that the citizens’ freedom and liberty shall not be infringed. It is not acceptable that we are merely renters from the government. Homeownership is the foundation of our freedom and liberty.
The push to eliminate the state income tax and giving millions to billionaires for sports stadiums is a clear indication that State lawmakers support the donor class rather than the average citizen. We will be requesting public records to determine campaign contributions to lawmakers. Be prepared to have the curtain pulled back on who is supporting whom! We will expose the socialists and communists in our midst.
Let former State Rep and Lake County Commissioner Ron Young remind you of the top priorities of government and elected officials. Rep. Young asked me to record his final meeting as a Commissioner. This may be the most important video that we have recorded to date.
We thank Representative David Thomas and Representative Jennifer Gross for addressing the problem of the broken tax system in Ohio. The following is a news article sent to us about the proposed property tax reform.
It’s time for a tax protest to fight $3.5B reform bill, Butler County commissioners say
By Denise G. Callahan – Contributing Writer
The Butler County commissioners are calling on all residents and elected officials to reach out to state lawmakers and implore them to defeat a new $3.5 billion property tax reform bill.
Last week the House unveiled a package of property tax reforms — House Bill 335 — the biggest being eliminating guaranteed inside millage for cities, counties, schools and villages and force them to rely on other revenue streams like income and sales tax. Township millage won’t be touched because they don’t have any other revenue options, but they would be limited to the amount they levied in tax year 2024.
Rep. David Thomas, the former Ashtabula County auditor who has been picked by Republican leadership to spearhead property tax reform, said when he introduced his bill the tax system is “broken.”
The counties are able to have a sales tax, our cities and our villages and our schools are able to have an income tax and our question back is ultimately, if you have other ways to provide services, why place it all on the property owner, who for the last five years has been crying out that enough is enough and they’re tapped out,” Thomas said.
He said the $3.5 billion will save “the average Ohioan” $850 on their property tax bill, “if they own a home with the average value.”
County Auditor Nancy Nix did a rough calculation — there are many variables involved — on the impact of erasing all of the inside millage countywide and replacing it with sales tax. The inside millage for the county, schools, cities and villages amounts to around roughly $118 million and the sales tax rate would need to increase from 6.5% to 8%. Voters would have to approve the rate hike.
Commissioner Don Dixon told the Journal-News if the measure passes, it would be devastating for the local governments trying to provide vital services.
“Making the counties put the sales tax on because the state wants to get out of the target zone, getting their ass handed to them because they’ve done nothing to fix it permanently just doesn’t make any sense,” Dixon said. “It’s too much, too fast, not enough thought, don’t know what the repercussions are going to be.”
This week, he and his fellow commissioners urged their residents and other elected officials to deluge state lawmakers representing the county with phone calls protesting the reform bill.
“Tell our residents call your state reps, call your state senators call anybody,” Dixon said. “We have to raise the red flag and say this is crazy, crazy crazy,” Dixon said and later added. “Because if this thing comes down, it puts more pressure on our budget, we’ve already put a hiring freeze on through ‘26. We had no idea this was coming, we have to be prepared and we are prepared but we’re not prepared for a tsunami like this, that just drains cash from the county.”
The county is represented in Columbus by state representatives Rodney Creech, Jennifer Gross, Thomas Hall, Diane Mullins and Sen. George Lang. Their contact information can be found online at legislature.ohio.gov under the “legislators” tab.
Commissioner T.C. Rogers said the state lawmakers are touting $2 billion they pay in tax rollbacks and Homestead exemptions, but those provisions have been around for decades; they are nothing new.
He noted when pandemic-induced property value explosions hit two years ago, Butler County took steps to lessen the blow. Nix issued a challenge to all taxing bodies in 2023 asking them to forgo the windfall funds they received from bloated property values.
The commissioners and officials in Middletown and Seven Mile and Fairfield, Liberty and West Chester townships accepted the challenge saving taxpayers $8 million combined.
About HB 335 Rogers said, “I don’t feel that’s an answer, I feel that’s a milquetoast response to a much larger problem.”
Commissioner Cindy Carpenter harkened back to two years ago when county officials here were the first to warn lawmakers that property values were exploding and they needed to act. They proposed a three-year average for valuing property that would have given the state three years to fix the problem for good.
Early estimates were values would jump 42% and the three-year average would drop it to 25%. The final average was 34%.
“There was a solution that came forward a couple years ago, our county was actively involved in that,” she said. “This bill they don’t address that at all, in fact they come up with ways to ding commissioners with restrictions on using inside millage.”
Thomas told the Journal-News he has gotten a mixed reaction to the bill, which was scheduled for a first hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee. He insists these measures are critical.
“The taxpayers are rising up, they’re rising up against the excessive taxation and the spikes in Property Taxes over the last 5 years. I believe and our taxpayers want a say over these increases and this amount of property tax,” Thomas said. “We need to change how we operate to better respond to the taxpayer’s needs. Relying on property taxes for the majority funding is not right.”
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Categories: Community Activism, Real Estate Taxes, State of Ohio, Uncategorized