The Ohio Statehouse in 2023, which could end property tax in Ohio in the upcoming November election. Credit: Jake Zuckerman/Cleveland.com via TNS
Ohioans could vote to end property taxes in the upcoming November election.
Members of the Committee to Abolish Ohio Property Taxes won approval to gather petition signatures to put the amendment on the ballot from the Ohio Ballot Board, according to the Ohio secretary of state website.?
If abolished, every Ohioan, not just property owners, would be affected.
The group is trying to collect a target of 620,000 signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties to put the measure on the November ballot. The election issue would amend the Ohio Constitution to abolish property taxes and prohibit any future taxes from being enacted, according to the committee’s website.
Committee Treasurer Leonard Gilbert said he wants to abolish property taxes to regulate government overreach and support the family unit.
“It’s bigger than a dollar and cents issue because the longer we continue to allow government to take away the self-governing of ourselves, the government is going to grow exponentially,” Gilbert said. “The government grows exponentially, you lose more and more of your freedom and ownership.”
Ohio State Law Professor, Blaine Saito, an expert in tax policy, said the loss of property taxes could shift more government funding to sales taxes, which would put more of a burden on poor Ohioans. The proposed amendment is also facing skepticism from several government officials, including Franklin County Auditor Michael Stinziano.?
“There is a lot, a lot, of unknown of eliminating property taxes under the current structure, what changes that would make and how service and expectation of service would follow,” Stinziano said.
Property taxes in Ohio are based on a property’s assessed value, which is 35 percent of its appraised value, multiplied by a local mill rate, one dollar per every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value, according to Stinziano.
If a property is appraised at $100,000, its assessed value, taxable value, would be $35,000. If the local mill rate was 2 percent, or 20 mills, the annual property tax owed would be $700.?
Columbus tax districts include the Columbus City Schools, City of Columbus, Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks, Columbus State Community College and Franklin County, according to Stinziano’s office.
There are three main taxes that local governments can rely on for revenue: sales, income and property taxes, according to Saito.
Income tax is a progressive tax, Saito said. Increasing the income tax rate as income increases, known as a marginal tax rate, provides more relief to people that are more economically disadvantaged.
Sales tax is a regressive tax because it affects low-income individuals more than wealthy Ohioans, Saito said.
The more wealth a person has, the less they get out of their next dollar and the less someone has, the more their next dollar is worth, which is the declining marginal utility of money, Saito said.
“Suppose all you earned was $1,000 a month,” Saito said. “The next dollar you earn is sort of worth more to you than if you earned $7,000 a month, right?”
If the amendment is added to the Ohio Constitution, Saito said the state will be entirely reliant on sales tax and income tax for revenue.
The current sales tax is 5.75 percent plus local rates, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation website. The 2026 income tax is $26,050 and 2.75 percent of anything over an annual income of $26,050, plus another $332 base amount, according to the Ohio Revised Code.
Public schools would be one of the most affected groups, since most of its funding comes from property taxes, Saito said.
Townships using property tax to fund firefighters and police would also be stripped of revenue and have to look into alternative revenue generators, Saito said.
Gilbert said he believes the solution to finding another source of money is in budget management, including cuts and consolidating state resources.
“The reality is, the government has exceeded the ability of the private sector to pay for services.” Gilbert said.
Gilbert said he was inspired to abolish property tax in part due to his religious beliefs, citing it as “immoral” from a biblical standpoint. He also cited his stance against foreclosures.?
Stiniziano said he supports an alternative tactic to abolishing property taxes modernizes the homestead exemption, a reduction in taxable value where the state pays a portion of property taxes for senior citizens under a certain income threshold and for disabled veterans.
More supported alternatives are tax deferments, in which the state pays what property owners can’t and they pay the amount back when said property is sold. There are also circuit breakers, which establish limits for property tax increases, Stinziano said.
The committee, which operates under the title AxOHTax, has divided the state into 11 zones led by regional zone captains that organize signing events and coordinate county captains to solicit signatures for the petition, according to Gilbert.
To get on the November ballot, the amendment needs enough signatures to match at least 10 percent of the last Ohio gubernatorial election, roughly 420,000. It also needs enough signatures to match 5 percent from 44 of the 88 Ohio counties, according to the Ohio Constitution Article II, Section 1a.
AxOHTax’s goal is to create a wide margin of 620,000 signatures, which would need to be submitted at least 125 days prior to the November election to make the ballot, according to the Ohio Constitution.
