Republican lawmakers frustrated at Gov. Mike DeWine’s 67 line-item vetoes in the new state budget have planned to come back later this month to override some of those.
A notice to members obtained by the Statehouse News Bureau shows GOP House leaders have told members to report back to work on Monday, July 21. Lawmakers were expected to be on break until the fall.
It’s unusual for either chamber to meet on a Monday. And representatives will convene in the Senate because of maintenance work on the air conditioning system in the House chamber.
The notice to representatives said the purpose of the session "is to consider overriding line-item vetoes made by the Governor to [House Bill 96, the state budget]." The notice specifically references three property tax-related vetoes.
DeWine struck provisions allowing county budget commissions to reduce voter-approved levies, requiring emergency and other levies to be used when calculating the 20-mill floor which is the effective tax rate, and limiting districts’ power to ask for emergency levies.
But the override session won’t address the veto of the limit of collected property tax that districts can carry over at 40% of their operating budgets. Republican leaders had described that as immediate property tax relief, but districts have said would send many into financial chaos. They warned the provision could lead to more levies, which DeWine noted in his veto message.
No Democrats supported the state budget in the House or Senate, so it seems unlikely they'll support any veto overrides pushed by Republicans.
The new House Minority Leader called real property tax relief a pressing need for lawmakers, but said the attempt to override DeWine's vetoes isn't it.
"Instead of using state resources to put money back in the pockets of taxpayers, Republicans chose to give hundreds of millions in handouts to billionaires for sports teams and tax cuts for the richest people in the state," said House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) in a written statement. "Governor DeWine saw through the sham and knew these provisions would hurt our public schools and local governments, and that’s why he vetoed several of them. If Republicans were serious about real property tax relief, they wouldn’t pass the buck, they would use this session to vote on bipartisan, commonsense solutions that would make a real difference.”
Lawmakers have overridden two of DeWine's vetoes. The other override was in January 2024, when Republicans overrode his veto of House Bill 68, a ban on gender-affirming care for minors and trans athletes in girls sports. That law is in effect while a court challenge over it continues.
