- Limit school district carryover to 40% of their expenses and require excess funds be refunded to taxpayers. An estimated $2.5 billion savings to taxpayers.
- Adjusting the school district 20-mill floor calculation to include emergency, substitute and other levies and income taxes. A Legislative Services report noted school district “property tax collections may be reduced by tens of millions to over a hundred million dollars annually.”
- Giving county budget commissions the authority to “unilaterally” reduce a levy passed by voters if they determine the funding isn’t necessary.
- Eliminate replacement tax levies for all taxing bodies and curtail school districts’ ability to levy fixed sum emergency and substitute emergency levies and school district income tax and fixed-sum property tax levies.
The House will meet on July 21 for a vote to override — they need 60 votes — all but the 40% school district carryover provision. The carryover restriction was the only property tax reform item the House had in its draft of the biennium budget.
Ashtabula County Rep. David Thomas, who was hand-picked by Republican House leadership to be the architect of property tax reform, told this media outlet the omission is strategic.
“The biggest reason is that would have likely been the one that had the most unsure votes or would have been the hardest to get across the finish line,” he said. “And I remind people our budget commission language actually allows every county to do that.”
DeWine acknowledged property tax reform is crucial but said he vetoed the reforms the legislature proposed because they would have caused significant problems for the schools, “this was not going to be good for our students, ultimately all that matters is our students.”
He addressed a possible override like this.
“We have a constitutional process and in Ohio we have a great system as we do in most states, checks and balances and everybody has a turn to make their move, I made my move,” he said. “My move was to veto things that I thought were not good for the state of Ohio. And the legislature can now do what they do, obviously I think my vetoes were valid but we’ll see what the legislature wants to do.”
The Republican governor axed 67 budget provisions that both chambers of the legislature agreed to during a marathon conference committee led by House Finance Committee Chair Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, and Senate Finance Chair Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland.
Cirino said the Senate doesn’t have a meeting date yet — the House has to act first — but they will also likely fight the governor’s vetoes.
“I think given the fact we all just got done voting for this bill with the property tax reforms in it, I think it would be a logical conclusion to suggest that we would support any next steps necessary to get it into revised code,” Cirino said.
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