Chavez Supports $2 Billion In Long Term Relief For Ohio Property Taxpayers

COLUMBUS— Senator Brian Chavez (R-Marietta) and the Ohio State Senate passed five major reforms to Ohio's Property Tax Laws ending runaway tax increases without a vote of the people.

This will save Ohio's property taxpayers $2 billion over three years as the full force of the changes take effect.

The Senate acted to pass reforms in five key areas:  

• Prioritizing property tax relief for Ohioans who own and live in their homes. Homeowners will see the owner-occupied tax credit increase from 12.5% to 15.38% over the next 4 years. This will provide an additional $350 million to $400 million of property tax relief for Ohio homeowners while the nonbusiness property tax credit is phased out
• Capping the basic automatic growth of inside millage to no more than the cumulative rate of inflation over the previous 3 years
• Capping the growth in property taxes due to reappraisal to no more than the cumulative rate of inflation over the previous 3 years
• Empowering County Budget Commissions to reduce unnecessary or excessive collections
• Making existing Emergency and Substitute levies subject to the tax reduction factors 

"We stand for the taxpayers and not for runaway revenue that is undermining homeowners and the American Dream," said Senate President Rob McColley. "While home prices have skyrocketed and departed from the rate of inflation, we've heard the cries from homeowners and are not only granting tax relief in the near term, but we are making sure that these unexpected and unwanted spikes in property taxes won't happen again."

More than 70% of all property tax revenue goes to schools.

Earlier this year the Ohio Senate passed two veto overrides that prohibit all future substitute emergency and substitute replacement levies. These levies fall outside of the anti-inflationary guardrails of existing law and contributed to shocking property tax bills for taxpayers. 

Senator Chavez and the Senate will continue to explore reforms to Ohio's property tax system in the new year.  

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