NEWARK, Ohio – Property tax bills are being worked on at the Ohio Statehouse by politicians who want to help Ohioans.
The latest attempt at the statehouse to deal with property taxes is meant to let people make the choice. If it makes it through the statehouse, Representatives Beth Lear (R-Galena) and Scott Wiggam (R-Wayne County) are sponsoring House Joint Resolution 6. This resolution will ask voters if they want to limit property tax rises.
Lear said, “I believe it is very important to let the people of Ohio choose if they want to limit property tax increases or not.” Our goal is to stop the blood while we work on the wound, so this is a tourniquet.
Some people want to change the law so that property taxes can only go up by 4% or the rate of inflation, whichever is less at the time.
We can still vote on fees even though this is the case. “But if more than one tax measure that would raise more than 4% passed, it would bring them all down,” Lear said. “We have to pay taxes, but we also need people to own their own homes. It’s not okay to force people to leave their homes.”
“Since we’re the legislature, why do we need to change the constitution to do this? We can just change the code.” As for what the goal is, Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said, “I’m not quite sure what it is.” “Putting some kind of cap on property taxes is a very blunt way to solve a very complicated problem.”
At least this would help all Ohioans, Lear said. Some of the laws that are currently in place, she said, would only help some Ohioans.
“Exemptions for homesteads help, but they only help some people.” She also said, “We need to help the whole state of Ohio get its property taxes down to a level that makes sense.”
But if this is passed in the end, it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to schools, fire stations, libraries, and other places that depend on property tax money.
Lear said, “If the people who pay all the taxes agree and vote it into law, that will force the legislature to deal with the large issue of property taxes.”
Speaker of the House Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) said, “The devil is in the details of such a plan.”
Lear said that the November election “would have been perfect,” but that there probably isn’t enough time to get it done in time. She did say, though, that she thinks there are better ways to deal with the problem than changing the Constitution.
In that way, Russo said, “I’m much more interested in addressing this issue, which we need to do right away,” than in “arbitrary setting this sort of cap that we’re going to put in the constitution.” “I don’t think that’s a good way to make laws.”
The eighth meeting of the Property Tax Review Study Commission at the statehouse was just held. The commission is made up of both state senators and state representatives, and its job is to make suggestions on how to lower rising property taxes.
“Right now we have a study commission whose job it is to look at this issue as a whole and make suggestions that take into account all of the known and unknown effects,” Russo said.
It has been asked for action from both the leadership and both sides of the aisle, but no connected bills have quite made it to the governor’s desk yet this general assembly.
Stephens said, “It’s a big, broad issue that’s been around for about 200 years, which is as long as Ohio has been a state.”
Stephens said that being clear about levies is another piece to the property tax problem.
He said, “Property taxes are the only tax that stays in the county.” “That is why they are where they are: people have voted for them at some point.”
A bill has been introduced to get rid of a certain type of levy. This will help Ohioans understand better when they are voting for a property tax raise.
Stephens said he wants to make that clear to the people of Ohio.
Stephens said, “We want to make sure that it’s clear and open that when you vote for something, you know what it stands for.” “That’s why it supports the fire department, schools, libraries, and other places, and makes sure that everything is open and honest.”
The bill passed its committee at the beginning of May, but it hasn’t been voted on by the whole House yet. There will be a new General Assembly at the beginning of next year if the bill does not pass both the House and the Senate by the end of the year.
Source: NBC4