By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall

We did some research into what has happened to the state’s support of local government with the distribution of local government funds?

Distribution and Use

• Recipients: State funds generated by a plethora of taxes are shared among approximately 2,300 political subdivisions, including counties, cities, townships, villages, and special districts.
  
• Recipients: The LGF portion was distributed to over 2,300 local entities, including:
• Cities: 23.9%
• Counties: 16.5%
• Townships: 5.2%
• Villages: 2.8% 
  
• Formula: County budget commissions typically determine local distributions based on a statutory formula or locally agreed-upon rules.
  
• Purpose: These funds support essential services like police, fire, EMS, and road maintenance, especially in smaller municipalities with limited tax bases.

Prior to Governor Kasich reducing the funds given to local communities in 2011, the percentage was 3.68%.

• To address an $8 billion budget gap, the Kasich administration reduced the LGF  in phases.
• For FY 2012, funding was cut to 75% of the previous year’s levels.
• For FY 2013, it was further reduced to 50% of the 2011 levels.
• The 1.66% Floor:
  • Starting in August 2013, the funding method returned to a percentage of revenue, but it was set at just 1.66%—less than half of its pre-2011 rate. 

Starting in 2024 – 2025 the LGF percentage was increased to 1.70% and in 2026 – 2027 it was increased to 1.75%.

So it is very obvious that the state legislators have starved the local communities by not sharing the increase in state tax revenue, and the local communities have had to rely on either property taxes or income taxes to support essential services.

The same can be said of the state’s funding of public schools. The red bars are the increases in Ohio’s General Fund Revenue, and the green bars reflect the school funding.

We were amazed at the funding of Ohio’s public libraries. Did you know that Ohio leads the COUNTRY in state funding for public libraries.

In FY 2022, Ohio led the nation in per-capita state funding of public libraries ($43.07) and ranked second in total library funding per capita ($90.44) behind only the District of Columbia ($110.47).

 Ohio libraries’ state funding of $43.07 per capita far exceeds that of neighboring states and is over 12 times the national average of $3.44.

 Ohio’s local library funding of $41.41 per capita is 1.1% below the national average of $41.86.

 Shares of FY 2022 Ohio per-capita total:
 47.6% State
 45.8% Local
 6.6% Other and Federal

 Ohio’s public libraries consist of:
 251 public library systems
 775 individual library locations (including 715 central and branch locations and 60 bookmobiles)

Let’s compare funding for public libraries versus the local governments.

2023 to 2024: Distributions fell by nearly $29 million for libraries, primarily due to shortfalls in Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) and non-auto sales tax receipts

2022 to 2023: Funding increased slightly due to strong state tax collections while the rate remained at 1.70%.

2025 Change: The 2026-27 state budget decoupled the two funds, increasing the LGF to 1.75% of state revenue while moving the PLF to a fixed appropriation (lump sum).

The numbers tell me that the libraries must have a very strong lobbying group, and our state legislators until 2025 viewed libraries as more important than police, fire and road services. Quite frankly, it makes no sense.

It begs the question, should public libraries be privatized? Should libraries charge an annual fee to those that want to use the library, or is the “warmth of collectivism” the new mantra for the State of Ohio?

Are you willing to fight for freedom and liberty?

Anyone that continues to vote for property tax levies is funding their own demise.

ANY TAX CAUSING A CITIZEN TO BECOME HOMELESS IS IMMORAL!

Categories: State of Ohio, Uncategorized

Tags: FT