When Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed four property tax related items in the new two-year state budget, he also announced he wants a working group to look into property tax law changes. House Republicans plan to override three of those vetoes next week, and some say since there’s already been a study of property taxes, this new group isn’t needed.
Republican former lawmakers Pat Tiberi and Bill Seitz will lead DeWine’s working group on combatting rising property tax bills while still funding schools, police and other services.
"The idea behind our task force is, is to try to come up with something. What I'm particularly concerned about is the fact that we do have Ohioans who are hurting, and that's very, very clear. We have Ohioans who, have lived in their home for many years. They paid their mortgage off, but now they're on fixed income. And now the property tax continues, continues to go up," DeWine said when announcing his vetoes on July 1."Trying to figure out how we deal with that, I think is, is very important. And that's why I put a working group together."
DeWine called for this group just months after a bipartisan commission of legislators delivered 21 recommendations for property tax law changes in January, following a series of hearings before the Joint Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform in the last two-year session. Those recommendations included expanding the traditional Homestead Exemption, adding an enhanced exemption for disabled veterans and including means testing, passing a "circuit breaker" in the form of a refundable income tax credit when property taxes exceed 5% of an occupant’s income, and reviewing tax abatements and property tax exemption programs for their effectiveness and potential misuse. But none of them have been passed into law.
Senate Finance Chair Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) said that report was discussed in coming up with the budget’s property tax provisions that DeWine vetoed.
“I don't think we need another study committee to study the issue," Cirino said in an interview. "We've studied it. We've listened to input. We've had lots of hearings. Whether or not those particular 21 recommendations made it into the budget bill, I think we would see some variations on some of their recommendations, certainly. But what we had in the budget bill is what we believed between the House and the Senate would be an appropriate very good start to dealing with the property tax issues. It's not the final solution. It is not going to solve all of the problems."
DeWine is also convening working groups on two other vetoed issues in the budget. He wants to study costs to communities for local law enforcement in state parks, saying "this work of responding to actions in state parks and other things may be a great drain on their budget."
And DeWine said he supports the idea of banning the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds—also known as food stamps—for sugar-sweetened beverages, he vetoed that. But he added that the state has already requested a federal waiver for such a prohibition on SNAP funds for that purpose, and that his working group would look into that.
