Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has issued a new warning against the growing grassroots effort to eliminate property taxes statewide, claiming such an action would result in hikes of other taxes to compensate for lost revenue.
10TV.com reports the Republican governor, who is in the final year of his administration, insisted the eradication of property taxes posed a “huge threat” to the schools and local governments that are funded through property tax revenue.
“If that passed, it would just be devastating to all kinds of local government, starting with schools but also police and fire,” DeWine said. “We would be in a huge crisis in the state of Ohio. The legislature at that point would have to figure out where does that money come from.”
DeWine added Ohio residents would be burdened with higher income and sales taxes as a result of the loss of property tax funds.
“Sales tax would go up to 17, 18, 19%, 20% sales tax in the state of Ohio on products that you buy,” DeWine said. “So it would just be absolutely devastating.”
However, supporters of the push to eliminate property taxes were not impressed with DeWine’s warning.
“Don’t tie it to my home,” said Brian Massie, who is part of the five-member Committee to Abolish Ohio’s Property Taxes that is seeking a constitutional amendment that would eliminate all property taxes in Ohio. Massie’s group is collecting signatures to put the proposal on the November election ballot.
“We’ve got well over 2,000 circulators and we keep adding more each day, and we’re speaking to people throughout the state — and we’re going to make it happen,” Massie said, adding that DeWine is overlooking a key idea for financial stability. “The size of the state government could be drastically reduced. So, it’s not a matter of, ‘Well, we’re going to transfer what we’re doing with property taxes over to sales tax.’ It’s not sustainable what we’re doing. So why would we continue to move it to another tax?”
Photo courtesy of Gov. DeWine’s Instagram page
