By John Marra
In a latest One other Viewpoint opinion, Harmony Township Administrator Andy Rose warns that eliminating property taxes would devastate Ohio communities. However the true risk to Ohioans just isn’t tax reform—it’s the very system we have now now, one that enables the federal government to grab your private home even after your mortgage is paid off. That isn’t possession—it’s everlasting hire to the state.
Let’s be clear: property tax is a lien. If you happen to fall behind — on account of sickness, fastened revenue, or rising prices — the federal government can and can take your private home, public sale it and preserve the proceeds. This has occurred to hundreds of Ohio households, not as a result of they have been reckless, however as a result of the system is basically unjust.
Rose claims eliminating property taxes would devastate Ohio communities and reduce off important providers. However that argument falls aside underneath scrutiny. Solely about 20% of your property tax invoice funds native providers like police, fireplace, EMS and sanitation. These important providers can — and will — be billed instantly, like trash, water, or sewer. It’s extra clear and extra equitable.
Nearly all of property taxes — usually greater than 60% — goes to fund public faculties. But the Ohio Supreme Court docket, within the DeRolph choices, dominated that faculty funding is the state’s accountability — not the house owner’s. Property tax shouldn’t be the first funding mechanism, particularly when it punishes seniors, individuals with out school-age kids, and struggling households simply attempting to remain of their properties.
And right here’s a vital flaw within the present system: native providers are delivered based mostly on inhabitants and family depend — not property worth. A low valued dwelling receives the identical police, fireplace safety and municipal providers as a house valued at 1,000,000 {dollars}. But one might pay 10 instances extra in taxes. That’s not equity — it’s legalized inequity constructed into our tax code.
Rose additionally says property taxes are “steady and predictable.” However for a lot of householders, particularly in working-class neighborhoods, they’re something however. Mass value determinations — usually carried out by out-of-state companies — can improve a house’s taxable worth by 30%, 50%, even 100% with no sale, consent, or vote, producing taxes on unrealized positive factors. These spikes are practically inconceivable to problem due to the mass appraisal methodology, and the burden of proof lies unfairly with the house owner.
In the meantime, college districts mechanically gather extra from these valuation spikes on account of Ohio’s 20-mill flooring, even when voters by no means authorised a brand new levy. It’s a clean test that bypasses the poll field and grows each time the market does, creating an invisible tax hike with no accountability, and householders pay the worth. Extra taxation on unrealized positive factors.
Let’s additionally ask: Who actually advantages from the present system? It’s not seniors, single dad and mom or fixed-income households. It’s bloated college administrations, tax lien patrons, and layers of forms that proceed to develop whilst pupil proficiency scores decline. Critics declare eliminating property taxes helps the rich — however rich landowners don’t lose their properties over tax payments. On a regular basis individuals do.
This motion isn’t about gutting providers — it’s about changing a damaged, valuation-based mannequin with one based mostly on inhabitants and utilization. Native providers could be billed as utilities. Faculties could be funded by way of state-level revenue taxes, luxurious gross sales taxes, or transaction charges — mechanisms which might be voter-approved, tied to precise revenue or spending, and constitutionally sound.
The state has just one constitutional funding supply for faculties: revenue taxes. When legislators cross revenue tax cuts—as they’ve been and proceed to do — they’re, in impact, reducing college funding. These cuts disproportionately profit the rich whereas growing the burden on householders.
The proposed modification doesn’t strip funding. It restores possession. It says that when you’ve paid off your private home, you shouldn’t stay in concern of shedding it over a tax invoice. That’s a precept Ohioans throughout the political spectrum can assist.
We should cease complicated pressured taxation with civic accountability. If we wish to shield seniors, younger households and dealing Ohioans, we have to cease treating homeownership as a taxable occasion and begin funding public providers the appropriate means — pretty, equitably and constitutionally.
We didn’t purchase our properties to hire them again from the federal government. If you happen to can lose it over a tax, you by no means actually owned it. It’s time to finish authorities management over your private home and put possession again within the palms of Ohio households—the place it belongs.
John Marra is the mayor of Timberlake. The Information-Herald welcomes opinion column submission so all sides of a difficulty could also be aired.
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