The Republican chair of the Ohio Senate Education Committee is working on a massive overhaul of school funding, which would eliminate local property taxes and replace them with a statewide property tax, plus a sales tax increase.
Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware) said he believes it's the key to relieving Ohioans of skyrocketing property taxes while ensuring schools receive sufficient funding. Brenner has long criticized public schools and education funding. His proposal would make major changes in how schools operate, and some school districts that currently exist may no longer exist in their current form.
Brenner said in an interview that Senate Bill 93 would replace local school property taxes with a single statewide 20-mill property tax and a 1.75% sales tax increase, bringing the total state sales tax to 7.5%. Brenner said it would eliminate the EdChoice voucher program and would allow all K-12 students to use school choice. The bill would also require districts to allow open enrollment.
“It shifts the money to follow the student to the school of their choice," Brenner said. "So if you have kids who have disabilities, you have kids who are gifted, etc. or even transportation, those dollars would follow based on the students in those categoricals back to the local district or jurisdiction where they're going."
And Brenner said the sales tax increase broadens the school tax burden "to people not only in Ohio, but anybody who comes into Ohio to pay our sales tax. So I think that's a way to help subsidize our schools and try to lift some of that burden off of our local taxpayers."
Brenner said his bill would also change busing, allowing educational service centers to help provide transportation for local students. And it would require all public, private and charter students to take standardized tests that are now only given public school students.
Brenner also said there's a companion piece to his legislation. It's Senate Joint Resolution 4, which would allow the state to assume all school debt. Lawmakers would need to approve it and put it before voters.
Ohio lawmakers have been struggling with how to address property tax spikes in recent years. And a group of citizens is gathering signatures to put a statewide ballot issue before voters next year that would abolish all property taxes. That's something schools, cities, libraries and safety forces have voiced concerns about. But Brenner said this bill isn't just a reaction to that effort.
"I've been working on this for quite a while. We actually have had drafts of this bill over the last year," Brenner said. "We have put this together in such a way that we're going to try to alleviate the current issues that local schools face."
But Brenner see his overhaul plan as a way to avert a vote from frustrated homeowners to get rid of all property taxes.
"This alternative might be a better alternative because people would say, 'you know what, instead of getting rid of all of the property taxes, we'll go with this plan instead'," Brenner said. "I think that we need to have an open discussion of how do we fund our schools and is this the best way and is there a better way of doing it."
