Should Ohio eliminate property taxes? Citizens’ group moves to put issue on ballot

COLUMBUS, Ohio — After years of rising bills and growing frustration, a group of Northeast Ohioans want to outlaw property taxes.

The proposal to amend the the state Constitution would fundamentally reshape how schools and other local services operate in Ohio.

Citizens for Property Tax Reform, a Cuyahoga County-based group, took its first step Thursday by submitting a petition to Attorney General Dave Yost. Yost must determine whether the summary to be circulated around the state is accurate.

To qualify for the ballot, organizers must gather signatures from more than 400,000 registered voters.

“It’s time for the citizens of Ohio to pick up the torch and finally make the necessary changes,” according to the group’s website.

Since 2019, statewide collections of real property taxes (residential and commercial) have surged from about $15.6 billion to $20.3 billion, according to data from Ohio’s Department of Taxation and the Legislative Budget Office.

Increases were driven by skyrocketing home values, high inflation and rising construction costs.

“Here’s the worst part of it all,” Citizens for Property Tax Reform spokesperson Beth Blackmarr said. “We’re being taxed on money that we have not realized. We’re being taxed on windfalls that we haven’t’ seen. I think that’s incredibly unfair.”

Blackmarr has lived in her 1911 Lakewood home for decades, but its value jumped from $188,000 to $295,000 in the last re-assessment.

“This has been, wow,” she said. “We got clobbered.”

That’s why she joined the group and started working to put the issue before voters.

“I totally get the anger,” said Rep. Dave Thomas, an Ashtabula Republican. “I was so fed up I took a very large pay cut and changed my life to run for this position and work on property taxes.”

Read more: Ohio’s property tax crisis: How we got here and how some lawmakers propose to fix it

He thinks this amendment is possible but could come with major trade-offs.

“There would be many winners,” Thomas said. “But a good amount of folks would be paying a significant amount more.”

Property taxes are the main way many local governments– especially schools–fund their operations. And homeowners in areas with large business tax bases would see revenues drop in ways that could prove tricky to replace.

“The first biggest impact of this would be individuals would take on the burden paid for by commercial and utility property owners,” he said.

Thomas estimated local income and sales taxes would triple and then said, “Border counties like Ashtabula, Youngstown or Toledo, if you tripled the sales tax, what would that theoretically do for shopping?”

State Sen. Bill Blessing, a Hamilton County Republican, was more blunt: “What do townships do? They don’t have sales or income taxes. And what does the General Assembly do because the school funding formula is predicated on local property taxes.”

He referenced a line from the Joker in the Batman movies: “This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.”

Blessing also devotes a lot of time to housing issues and said any conversation about taxes must include ideas to lower home prices and encourage new construction.

The 2025 Gap Report, released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, found a statewide shortage of 267,382 affordable units.

School districts already have the ability to collect income taxes, and Thomas is advising boards to have those conversations now.

He’s also working on legislation that would make it easier to switch.

“I’m trying to make up for five years of not doing things,” he said. “I don’t want people to be patient because they deserve more than that. They deserved a lot more five years ago.”

Read more: Ohio Republicans eye $4.2 billion in school savings for one-time property tax cuts

Attorney General Dave Yost has until May 9 to decide if the petition from Citizens for Property Tax Reform meets the legal requirements.

If approved, the Ohio Ballot Board would then need to sign off before signature gathering could begin.

Anna Staver covers state government and politics for Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer.