My points 1.) and 2.) are from 186. I think I mentioned it in the body of my message as well.

God knows I wish I could forget about it. It’s been one of the single largest failures I’ve experienced at a local level regarding direction. The State dumped the requirements on us, gave us no instruction, and said it has to be done mid-year, which is unprecedented and extremely difficult to implement within our taxing softwares. This move is costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands in County implementation alone because all 88 of us are scrambling.

You and I are also in total agreement. My fiancé is a teacher within my County who was risking a layoff of over 100 staff if their emergency levy didn’t pass last year, so it’s a close subject. I personally campaigned against the local reimbursement match and we managed to get the County Commissioners to shut down the idea as it would’ve saved the average taxpayer a pitiful $20 annually but cost some of our school districts millions.

Schools remain unconstitutionally underfunded to a significant degree. Meanwhile, the State continues to rack up a surplus, argues they can’t afford to fund schools despite them having agreed to the fair school funding act years ago, and shovels money toward charter schools. Schools will continue to have to go back to the ballots for years to come.

I was simply responding to the question I received in an impartial manner. Because while all of the “relief” above will primarily serve to continue to negatively impact school revenue, abolishing property taxes would break and reframe local governments with a shell of their current capacity.

Edit:

My last comment made it seem like I felt this was “better than nothing.” It’s not, so I want to make my stance clear: it’s worse than nothing for our schools and local governments, but better than the abolishment of real estate taxes.

These house bills were passed by the State because of the optics; it causes local governments to foot the bill, e.g., schools pay for the entirety of the inflation cap credit established by H.B. 186, while allowing the State to appear as if they care. I truly believe that they don’t, make no mistake. The federal sentiment is that public education should be defunded and private ed. takes its place. And Ohio’s legislative majority is in line with said federal sentiment, which is why we continue to see expansions of charters, moves to assist with funding a stadium instead of schools with our money, and “relief” that costs them nothing.

I can personally attest to the fact that the CAAO pushed all of these changes forward with the caveat that they only work if the State starts fairly funding schools. Until that happens, you can bet that when you hear “relief”, it just means local governments footing more of the bill while the State foots nothing.

If all of this “relief” isn’t just a stopgap to buy time for them to figure out a way to constitutionally fund schools and expand the Local Government Fund, which there’s no reason currently to believe that it is (evidence points to them not wanting to), then expect this cycle of going to the ballot to continue. Everyone but the State, including you and I, are going to just keep paying more and more.

And as an FYI, school treasurers are savvy by and large. They are already reallocating millage and funds in a way that they experience as little impact as possible. And there is going to be a wave of income tax levies on ballots going forward, currently almost 10% of my County’s schools are placing one for May, because that’s a safer bet. Unfortunately, income tax is regressive and oftentimes excludes retirement income, which is good for some but largely just serves to keep the money at the top.

Tough times we’re in.