State Rep. Thomas talks property taxes at Business Compass

ROAMING SHORES – Ohio 65th District Rep. David Thomas spoke with Rock Creek Area Chamber of Commerce members and other interested community members and leaders during a Business Compass event on Friday, March 13, at Paradise Bay, in Roaming Shores.
Thomas highlighted bills and their movement through the State legislature, with a focus on matters related to property taxes.
“I’m still in my first term,” Thomas said. “Currently I serve as vice chair of the Ways and Means Committee, which is the tax committee. I’m also on the Public Pensions and Insurance Committee. I’m on the Energy Committee, and then on the Arts, Athletics and Tourism Committee.”
He spoke of the effectiveness of the previous General Assembly.
“Unfortunately, it was one of the most unproductive General Assemblies in our State’s history. There were a lot of things that were left undone, a lot of bills that needed to be moved that weren’t,” Thomas said.
Fast forward to this General Assembly, and Thomas believes they’ve been the most productive and the busiest one so far.
“The House alone, we’ve introduced almost 800 bills. Of those, roughly the Governor has signed about 100 of them,” Thomas said.
He said one of the first bills they passed was House Bill 15.
House Bill 15 aims to enhance Ohio’s energy landscape by reducing taxes on energy generation and improving affordability for consumers, while promoting sustainable energy practices.
In terms of the budget, Thomas said they lowered the state income tax.
“We are now a flat income tax in the State of Ohio at 2.75 percent,” Thomas said.
Thomas said the prior year they had passed bills dealing with tax changes on the property side, but most of those were vetoed.
“Fast forward then over the fall, we overrode one of those vetoes by the Governor,” Thomas said.
Then, they passed five property-tax bills that the Governor signed in December, he said.
Essentially with those five bills, they have stopped “unvoted spikes” moving forward, Thomas said.
Thomas also talked about the changes in levies, notably the removal of emergency and replacement levies.
“Now moving forward, when you go to the polls, you’ll only see, essentially, will this levy increase my tax bill, is it a new levy, an additional levy, or will this levy keep my tax bill the same, a renewal levy?” Thomas said.
Thomas also talked about a citizen-led initiative by the Committee to Abolish Property Taxes seeking a statewide vote this November to eliminate property taxes statewide through a proposed Constitutional amendment. Organizers have until early July to gather about 413,000 valid signatures from registered voters in at least half of Ohio’s 88 counties to reach the November ballot.
“The legislature is not looking to abolish property taxes. We just want to make that very, very clear,” Thomas said.
He said this is a citizen-led initiative. If the initiative is on the ballot and passes, it would take effect Jan. 1, 2027.
“Property taxation covers about $24 billion. It’s our number one form of tax in the State of Ohio,” Thomas said.
To give a reference, state sales tax is only $14 billion. State income tax is $10 billion, he said.
Should the amendment pass, that $24 billion will go away, Thomas said.
“Property tax, of course, funds all of our local services,” Thomas said.
He said he has spoken to the group advocating for the amendment.
“They’re very smart. They’re great people. I’ve actually thanked them, because their effort has kind of woken up a lot of people in Columbus to say ‘This is a big problem. We’ve got to make changes.’ And that’s a good part of how we passed so many of the bills last year that we did,” Thomas said.
Should the amendment pass, he said there is no mechanism or wording in the amendment for any type of replacement revenue or what would happen next.
“North Dakota tried this three years ago, in 2023. Their amendment failed about 60-40. They put in the replacement revenue, what would actually replace all of the property taxation, that failed,” Thomas said.
The Ohio citizen group did not put that in, he said.
“They’ve essentially said, ‘That’s on the legislature to figure out what would happen,” Thomas said.
There have not been any plans from the legislature on what would happen. He said no one at this point wants to put their name on that.
“There’s a lot of unknowns,” Thomas said.
He said any plan would take the House, Senate and governor agreeing on how to replace that amount in six weeks.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty around what actually could happen,” Thomas said.
Thomas said he does not believe there would be a tax increase at the state level.
“The philosophy being, you should be sending less to Columbus and keeping more of it, and you decide how to fund rural services with that money that you’re saving,” Thomas said.
He said he does not envision Columbus, at the State level, increasing taxes, and then sending that money across the state to make up the difference of property taxes.
“How I would envision it, we already essentially allow diversification of revenue at the local level,” Thomas said.
Counties have property and sales taxes. He said he envisions the State allowing counties to increase their sales tax to make up for the loss.
For villages and cities, the state would allow an increase in income tax, he said.
“About a third of our schools already have an income tax,” Thomas said.
He said townships and first responder districts are trickier, as they are mainly property-tax driven.
If voters approve the amendment, Thomas said there would have to be decreases in spending.
“What that looks like, though, would be the largest change in Ohio’s history in roughly six weeks,” Thomas said. “There’s a lot of open questions.”
Later in the meeting, Thomas also talked about a new bill he has sponsored, House Bill 592.
This bill proposes to decreases the population threshold, from 25,000 to 5,000, related to the incorporation of unincorporated territory.
It would eliminate the requirement, for an area that is petitioning to incorporate as a municipal corporation, to obtain approval from all existing cities and villages within three miles.
Thomas said the goal is to allow larger townships the opportunity to incorporate, which would give them funding alternatives to property-tax revenue.