The bill, carried by local Reps. Tom Young, R-Washington Twp., and Adam Mathews, R-Lebanon, sets up a once-a-decade county audit for villages to determine if that village provides at least five out of 10 essential services to its residents and produces at least one candidate for the village’s elected positions of government.
Under H.B. 331, villages that fail the audit will be subject to a vote among its resident to dissolve the village’s government entirely.
Young told this outlet that the bill is aimed at decreasing the number of taxing jurisdictions, and therefore the amount of different property taxes Ohioans pay, in the state of Ohio.
“We have too many taxing jurisdictions in this state,” Young said. “...We have a spending problem in this state, in (Mongtomery) county, and it’s got to stop.”
The bill grew out of repeated efforts in 2023 and 2024 to dissolve the 195-year-old Warren County village of Harveysburg that village voters rejected both years.
Ohio has hundreds of small villages that could fall subject to such audits.
In addition to Harveysburg (pop. 554), southwest Ohio is dotted with tiny villages that could face such audits. This includes the village of Jacksonburg in Butler County (pop. 55); Clifton in Greene County (pop. 131); Ludlow Falls in Miami County (pop. 175); and Catawba in Clark County (pop. 245).
The bill now goes to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature.
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