“Look, I get calls from superintendents, I get emails from superintendents, and what my answer is, is thank you very much for the information, and I have more to say about this on Tuesday morning.”
Ohio gov. mike dewine on June 28
Beth Blackmarr of Cuyahoga County opened her mailbox, reached in and collected its contents. She sorted the mail from the junk: advertisements, promotions and flyers. Once separated, she took the junk mail with her on a trip to the trash can.
Until something caught her eye.
Something that was definitely not junk mail.
It was a notice letting Blackmarr know that her home had been reevaluated.
The Cuyahoga County Auditor raised the value of her home by 51.9%.
“I immediately panicked,” Blackmarr said. “I did the math, and it was going to be anywhere between $120 and $200 extra a month on my mortgage.”
Blackmarr picked up her phone, and dialed the numbers of Lakewood city officials to ask about revaluations that could lead to exorbitant property tax bills and whether the city would provide help for seniors living on a fixed income who may not be able to keep up with the rising taxes.
“They said, no, basically, and we’re sorry, but maybe you might want to think about moving if it is cost prohibitive for you,” Blackmarr said.
Ever since, Blackmarr has taken action against high property taxes by dedicating her retirement to volunteering for Citizens for Property Tax Reform. The group originally formed to protect seniors from high property taxes, and went by the title Save Our Seniors (SOS).
Now the group aims to eliminate property taxes for every property owner in Ohio.
Their plan involves three steps. Step one is to immediately freeze all property taxes for Cuyahoga County homeowners ages 65 and up.
Step two is to increase “homestead exemptions,” which are tax breaks for low-income homeowners who are disabled, over the age of 65, or spouses of first responders killed in the line of duty.
The final step in their plan is to end property taxes for all homeowners.
To do so, they must get voter approval to amend the Ohio Constitution. It is not a light undertaking.
Initially, the group had to secure 1,100 signatures to receive approval from the attorney general to solicit more signatures.
Dave Yost, the Ohio Attorney General, approved the petition for the amendment on May 9.
Now, the only thing standing in the way of adding this constitutional amendment to the ballot for the November election is gathering 413,000 valid signatures of Ohio voters. The group’s goal is to collect 600,000 to make sure that enough are valid.
The group needs all of these signatures by July 1. They don’t know how many volunteers have collected so far.
“People have to send (the signatures) back to us. … There’s no digital tracking,” Blackmarr said. “This is the very definition of a grassroots effort.”
It’s a grassroots effort that is gaining so much popularity, lawmakers in the Ohio Legislature started to sweat. The pressure is on them to produce property tax reform that would relieve residents while keeping tax-funded services afloat.
The major concern is with the schools.
“I do agree that we do rely on our property taxes too much. I agree with that wholeheartedly,” said Newark City Schools Superintendent David Lewis.
“But if you were to do away with property taxes, it would kill the schools,” Lewis said.
While many public entities, such as fire and police departments, receive some property tax funding, school districts receive a significant portion from property taxes, and the elimination of them could cripple public schools.
This is not a new issue. In 1997, reliance on property taxes is exactly what the Ohio Supreme Court said was unconstitutional about public school funding in Ohio.
DeRolph vs. The State of Ohio, which originated in Perry County in 1991, argued that Ohio’s public school funding formula was unconstitutional because students in wealthier communities got better buildings, better teachers and a better education because they had more local money.
In the 34 years since then, the state has attempted multiple times to reform the funding equation aimed at creating a more equitable state and local funding split.
The Fair School Funding Plan implemented in 2021 is one example. It changed the way that funding is calculated for schools by factoring the “base cost” to educate each student and how much taxpayers from the district should contribute.
Therefore, the proportion of state and local funding largely depends on the district.
Big impact for Licking County schools
Take Granville Exempted Village School District and Newark City School District.
For the 2025-2026 school year, Granville Exempted Village School District predicts that the district will receive 48.57% of its revenue from property taxes and 22% will come from state sources. The rest comes from other sources, such as grants.
On the other hand, Newark City School District estimates it will receive 29.1% of its revenue from property taxes and 52% of their revenue from state sources.
Newark schools receive much more in state funding than Granville, which are heavily reliant on property taxes.
However, as property values in Granville and Newark rise, Granville’s property taxes stay the same while Newark’s and many other distrcit’s increase.
This difference is caused by a tax policy called the “20-mill floor.” Enacted in 1976 through House Bill 920, schools must be guaranteed a property tax of at least 20 mills to ensure the school has enough funding. The funding can be approved either by voters (called “outside millage”) or approved without the help of voters (called “inside millage”).
If a district is above the 20 mill floor, tax rates are reduced when property values rise.
“The tax rate is adjusted down, so that the revenue that’s received stays about the same,” said Granville Exempted Village Schools Treasurer Brittany Treolo.
But for districts that are already at the 20-mill floor, they can not lower their tax rates when property values increase because that would put the tax rate below the 20-mill floor, meaning schools might not receive sufficient funding.
The plan to eliminate property taxes has gained traction, but so have proposed bills in both the Ohio House or Representatives and Senate.
Sen. Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster, whose district includes Licking County, said he has long believed that rising property taxes are a problem, and he is therefore taking property tax reform very seriously.
“We’re going to have families in crisis, particularly senior citizens in crisis, knocking on our doors if we don’t get something done soon,” Schaffer said.
Property tax ‘relief’ in budget bill raises concern
House Bill 96, the state budget bill that was passed on June 25 by the Ohio Senate, focuses on increasing funding for cancer research while also cutting property taxes by doubling the reduction in taxes for the homestead property tax exemption.
The bill also would provide property tax relief with a 30% cap on school districts’ “rainy day” funds, which are essentially savings accounts for unexpected expenses or revenue shortfalls. Anything more than that 30% would be taken from the school district and given back to taxpayers.
“The two big provisions in the budget that we put in that empower our local county commissioners to increase the exemptions – the homestead exemption and the owner-occupied exemption – (will lower) the taxes. I think those are two really good, strong steps,” Schaffer said.
Some school officials have expressed concern to Gov. Mike DeWine at having their rainy day funds capped, and see the policy as a punishment to schools that are fiscally responsible.
“Look, I get calls from superintendents, I get emails from superintendents, and what my answer is, is thank you very much for the information, and I have more to say about this on Tuesday morning,” DeWine told The Reporting Project on June 28.
The state budget bill is required by law to be signed by the governor by July 1, and DeWine has the power of line-item veto, so he could remove portions of the budget bill.
Other bills seeking to address property taxes include Senate Bill 190 which would install a “circuit breaker” policy to limit increases. Senate Bill 206 proposes a 50% property tax reduction for homeowners over 65, and House Bill 309 could require that county budget commissioners step in if a local government is collecting more property taxes than needed.
Despite all of these bills and more, nothing proposed by lawmakers has made substantial progress in addressing property tax fatigue, according to Blackmarr, so her group is not hopeful about the future if it is left up to the legislature.
Replace property tax with sales and income tax?
The Citizens for Property Tax Reform believes in a different solution. The organization opts for a funding plan that replaces property taxes with sales and income taxes.
Some local sources of funding already come from income taxes, but getting voter approval of income tax issues can be difficult.
“We are fortunate that we have a 1% income tax here in Newark. … A lot of districts do not have an income tax,” Superintendent Lewis said.
In 2018, voters in the Granville district approved an income tax to diversify the revenue streams, Superintendent Jeff Brown said. Because of the income tax, Granville schools have not had to rely as much on property taxes.
“So, some of those property taxes have lowered as values have increased,” Brown said.
Regardless, property taxes still make up a large portion of Granville’s budget. And Brown said that relying too much on income tax is a dangerous game.
“Incomes fluctuate up and down based on the economic conditions of the community and the state,” he said. “So there’s much more volatility in income tax, and property tax is much more stable.”
A sales tax would not be possible, unless the state takes money from the sales tax and distributes it to the schools, Treolo said.
“We cannot directly collect sales tax, so our only option for local tax revenue is property tax or income tax,” Treolo said.
Somehow, public schools need funding to function.
“If you don’t want the services that are being provided, then you can get rid of the tax,” Brown said. “But if people want schools, they want police, they want fire services, they want roads, they want all the benefits of the services, but don’t want to pay the taxes, that doesn’t equate.”
Maddie Luebkert writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.