Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed five bills into law designed to alleviate the property tax burden on homeowners.
WSYX reports the new laws, which go into effect in 90 days, include the following:
- House Bill 124, which modifies the process for making property tax sales-assessment ratio studies
- House Bill 129, which includes fixed-sum levies in the calculation of a school district’s millage floor and authorizes, with limitations, school district fixed-sum levies
- House Bill 186, which authorizes a reduction in school district property taxes affected by a millage floor that would limit increases in such taxes according to inflation; the bill also modifies property tax reductions for residential property and the process for certifying property tax abstracts, and updates how to make an appropriation
- House Bill 309, which modifies the law governing county budget commissions and property taxation to enable reduced tax rates if the commission members believe the tax rates are generating more funds than necessary
- House Bill 335, which limits revenue increases from inside millage levies occurring due to a reappraisal or update.
Among the changes within these bills is the provision that the owner-occupied tax credit will increase incrementally to more than 15% over four years while a new “inflation cap credit” will prevent taxes from rising faster than inflation. The sponsors of the bills said they will generate over $3 billion in savings.
DeWine stated that while the bills were not perfect, they would provide “meaningful relief” compared to a potential ballot measure that would eliminate property taxes.
“The legislature would have to come up with alternative funding,” DeWine said. “I don’t know any way you could do that without a very, very significant increase in sales tax… an increase that would be so unprecedented that it would be more than any other state in the union
Photo courtesy of Gov. DeWine’s Facebook page
