CINCINNATI (WXIX) – A Greater Cincinnati lawmaker has introduced legislation for a temporary property tax reduction as property taxes have shot up at record levels statewide over the past two years.
Republican State Rep. Jean Schmidt is from Loveland in Clermont County, where residents saw a 43% increase in property valuations in 2023.
She said Thursday she provided sponsor testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee on House Bill 89, legislation to authorize a property tax freeze.
House Bill 89 will freeze property taxes at 2022 levels to give the Ohio General Assembly time to find more permanent solutions to property tax increases.
“This bill will provide immediate relief to Ohio’s homeowners who have faced an unprecedented hike in property valuations,” Schmidt said in a news release.
“By considering this legislation, we are communicating to our constituents that we are taking their struggles seriously and actively working to create lasting change.”
The legislation awaits further consideration from the House Ways and Means Committee.
Earlier this year, the Ohio House passed its first piece of property tax reform legislation, a bill that would eliminate replacement tax levies that often raise taxes and confuse voters.
If approved by the Senate and then Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, House Bill 28 would stop local tax jurisdictions from putting replacement levies on the ballot, which often result in tax increases.
The scramble by lawmakers to try to fix the problem of skyrocketing property taxes for all comes after efforts last year by local state representatives and senators, including Republican George Lang of West Chester, were unable to change the way the state’s tax commissioner calculates property values.
A budget amendment that would have slashed Butler County’s property value increases by nearly half cleared the Senate but then died in the House.
Now, fed-up voters may take the issue into their own hands by going around Ohio’s Statehouse and resolving the issue at the ballot box.
Earlier this month, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office accepted a petition for a constitutional amendment to abolish property taxes.
“Ohio’s broken, dysfunctional property tax is forcing people out of their homes with unvoted tax hikes,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost wrote in a May 14 post on X.
“The people are going to blow it up at the ballot box—and the resulting chaos will be a failure of the legislature, which knew better but would not act.”
Next, the Ohio Ballot Board will certify the proposal.
Petitioners need to gather signatures from registered voters equal to at least 10% of the votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial race, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
These signatures must come from voters in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, with each of the counties requiring at least 5% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election.
If the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office verifies the signatures at least 65 days before the election, the proposed amendment will go on the ballot at the next regular or general election, 125 days after the petition was filed.
Retired Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes recently announced the “culprit” behind rising property taxes in Ohio is “the 20-mill floor,” according to a May 13 opinion piece he submitted to our media partner, “The Cincinnati Enquirer.”
Nearly 50 years ago, Ohio lawmakers approved rolling back most taxes above the first 10 mills after higher property appraisals, he noted.
It said that no taxing entity would get a windfall or more money than voters approved because of market value increases.
School districts, however, convinced lawmakers to establish the “20-mill floor,” exempting them at less than 20 mills in General Fund resources from levy rollbacks, giving them unvoted increases if property values went up, Rhodes wrote in the Enquirer.
Removing the 20 mill floor for school districts would stop dramatic property tax hikes after a reappraisal, he pointed out.
“Ironically,” Rhodes wrote in his Enquirer editorial, “the school’s special deal to avoid going to the voters with levy requests has resulted in a statewide property tax revolt.”
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