Butler County leaders convene to address property tax hikes

Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon invited the six lawmakers who represent the county in Columbus — state Sens. George Lang and Stephen Huffman and Reps. Sara Carruthers, Rodney Creech, Jennifer Gross and Thomas Hall — and other local elected officials to a roundtable discussion.

Everyone but Huffman attended the three meetings last year and were at the table on Monday.

Dixon told the Journal-News despite a failed attempt to mitigate what turned out to be an average 37% value hike, they aren’t giving up the fight.

“We’re not turning this loose and our contingent in Butler County of legislators and officeholders, we’re not going away,” Dixon said. “We want to be part of the solution… All of our legislators are up to doing a fix, whatever it takes so we’re convening this again to come up with some concrete action plans.”

The average value increase in Butler County was 37%, 34% in Montgomery County, and 30% in Greene County.

These increase spurred the local delegation to propose short-term fixes that failed to pass the General Assembly.

It also prompted the creation of the Joint Property Tax Review and Reform Committee, which was tasked with coming up with a report or recommendations by year’s end. The group met eight times over the past six months. Lang is part of the 10-member committee.

He said a number of good ideas have come before the committee, but sweeping new tax relief won’t happen this year, because costly tax reforms will need to be woven into next year’s budget.

Based on discussions at the committee level and within his caucus, he said any reforms would likely be permissive not mandatory.

“I think none of these will be put in on a mandatory basis,” he said. “They’ll all be put in on a permissive basis and the county commissioners can pick and choose. Those county commissioners that truly care about the business community, that truly care about the taxes the residents pay, they will pick those tools that are most beneficial to the taxpayer.”

Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Twp. and Rep. Bill Roemer, R-Richfield, chair the tax reform committee and while they hoped to release their report before the legislature goes on summer recess, they won’t make the June 30 deadline.

Hall, a Madison Twp. Republican, has introduced more tax relief legislation than anyone in the legislature this General Assembly with four bills. He was a drafter of one of few pieces of legislation on the topic that did become law, which was indexing the homestead exemption to inflation.

He has another piece of legislation moving through the General Assembly that would eliminate replacement levies because they often include tax increases that voters might not know will occur if they approve. He said it makes it “crystal clear when someone goes to vote for something that this will increase your taxes.”

Carruthers said tax reform won’t be easy because school funding is constitutionally protected.

“It may require constitutional changes and dramatic changes to school funding which I think is a problem, when 51% of the state budget and about 60% of local property taxes go to education in Ohio,” Carruthers said.

Nix shared with the group some recommendations from her state association: adjusting the homestead exemption parameters to more realistic levels; eliminating the non-business credit and expanding the owner-occupancy credit; limiting revenue growth to the schools to inflation and creating a “targeted menu of relief” such as the proposed circuit breaker that is being vetted by the Senate Ways and Means Committee. It provides an income tax credit for the needy based on how much of their income goes for housing costs.

Gross said the only way they are going to push through meaningful relief is for the state to rein in spending.

“We have got to decrease spending, our capital budget this week will increase our spending $4.2 billion,” Gross said. “So, we’ve got to decide, where is our spending going to go? Is it going to the taxpayer, is it going to go to the homeowner or are we going to increase our spending?”

County Treasurer Mike McNamara said he hopes as the group continues to meet that more entities who receive the property taxes will participate.

“It’s true meaningful change in regard to our property taxes can only happen with the state legislature but that doesn’t mean other stakeholders should not be here,” McNamara said. “There’s a larger conversation to have about any action or lack of action and what the state action or inaction is going to have on us locally. I sense a time when taxpayers are going to have decreasing tolerance for the burden being laid at their feet. The history of our country is clear that people will find hypertaxation intolerable. They will find that taxation without representation is morally bereft and unacceptable.”

He said a perfect example is the recent outcry when the Miami Conservancy District planned but then pulled back from imposing huge rate increases to fund long overdue capital plans.

Dixon told this media outlet the Miami Conservancy District situation isn’t over and this group will keep tabs on that and other issues impacting taxpayers.

“I’ve never seen a legislative body come together like that, stay together like that and be committed like that,” Dixon told the Journal-News. “That’s a lot of horsepower and it’s going to be ongoing. I’m going to keep that group together because there are many, many projects we need to work on together and we need to know what everybody’s doing.”