最新消息
Property Tax Review Committee meets on back-to-back weeks
写于2024年5月3日
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As the Joint Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform looks at potential solutions to rising property taxes around the state, one witness told the committee 4月24日 that decoupling property taxes from the Fair School Funding Plan "may have very bad consequences," a notion backed by Ohio school officials.
迈克Sobul, a retired research administrator at the Ohio Department of Taxation, and the chief financial officer and treasurer at Granville Exempted Village Schools, gave the committee an overview of property taxes and what the Ohio Constitution and case law allows the state and local entities to do and not do when it comes to implementing them.
总结一下, he told the committee that the Ohio Constitution has been very restrictive of what can and can't be done with property taxes, 判例法也支持这一点. He also said there are some issues that have never been litigated and would need to be if they ever came about.
Discussing the school funding formula developed by former Speaker Bob Cupp and Rep. 约翰·帕特森, known as the Cupp-Patterson formula or the "Fair School Funding Plan," Sobul said the plan was designed to work with property taxes, and there would be drawbacks to decoupling them. He said an important point is that whatever lawmakers do, the school funding system recognizes what they are doing and moves in the same way with what is done.
Sobul was followed by a panel of school officials representing the Ohio Association of School Business Officials (OASBO) and the Buckeye Association of School Administrators (BASA). They included Mayfield City School District Superintendent Michael Barnes, Northmont City School District Superintendent Tony Thomas and Treasurer Ann Ferraro, Athens City School District Superintendent Matt Bunting, Johnstown-Monroe Local School District Superintendent Philip Wagner, and Sycamore Community School District Treasurer Jenni Logan.
The school officials echoed many of Sobul's sentiments, especially regarding property taxes and ties to the Fair School Funding Plan, saying any significant changes to the property tax system could break that relationship and cause the Fair School Funding Plan to fail.
5月1日, Ohio Township Association (OTA) Executive Director Heidi Fought said the passage rate for township levies has fallen during the last two election cycles as the General Assembly considers eliminating replacement property tax levies. 众议院的方式 & Means Committee on April 30 reported out H.B. 344 (Mathews-Hall), which would eliminate replacement property tax levies.
“The reduction in levies' passage rates alarms us. It is critical that townships have all three types of levies -- renewal, replacement and additional -- to provide residents with options that best suit the individual township. The OTA encourages the General Assembly to retain all three levy types for township usage,” Fought told the Joint Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform.
According to Fought’s testimony, renewal levies had a 96.6 percent passage rate in May 2023, a 97.9 percent passage rate in November 2023 and a 90.3 percent passage rate in March 2024. 替代税有92分.8 percent passage rate in May 2023, an 89 percent passage rate in November 2023 and a 70 percent passage rate in March 2024. 附加税有65.6 percent passage rate in May 2023, a 46 percent passage rate in November 2023 and a 40.9 percent passage rate in March 2024.
战斗说的颁布 134–H.B. 140 (Merrin) likely played a key role in the lower passage rates in November 2023 and March 2024.
Also providing testimony on May 1 were three representatives of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio (CCAO) – Union County Commissioner Dave Burke, Shelby County Commissioner Tony Bornhorst and Logan County Commissioner Mike Yoder.
Burke said he is concerned about the increased use of tax increment financing (TIF) for economic development purposes.
The committee also received testimony from Larry Heiser, finance director for the city of Beachwood, representing the Ohio Municipal League; Keary Mc车hy, executive director of the Ohio Mayors Alliance; and Jon Honeck, CCAO高级政策分析师.