Two Republican state lawmakers have introduced a proposal for a constitutional amendment to cap property tax increases at 3% a year, as long as owners live in the homes on which they're paying taxes. That would have to go to voters for their approval, but it won’t happen this year.
The proposed amendment would limit growth in the taxable value of an owner-occupied residence to 3% per year, no matter the appraised value of the home, to avoid hikes he calls unvoted tax increases.
Rep. Kevin Miller (R-Newark), one of the resolution's joint sponsors, said in an interview this is a better option for local governments than other options that might freeze home values or eliminate property taxes.
"Without allowing any type of increase, that's a huge strain on the municipalities that provide the resources because as we know, inflation takes, takes a bite into that," Miller said. "With our proposal, it's not locked, there is a small adjustment, inflationary adjustment, but we believe that that helps the municipalities, but it also provides more stability for our homeowners."
But Miller said local governments would see less money, unless they take action.
"The only loss that that they would see is what they would be getting in that increased appraised value," Miller said. "What we've said is that's an unvoted increase when your appraisals goes up, go up and your taxes go up. Nobody voted on that. So we kind of go back to the whole 'we'll give you an inflationary increase, but if you want additional money over and above that, then that's got to go to the voters.'"
Miller said he and joint sponsor Rep. Jeff LaRe (R-Violet Twp.) are aiming for the May ballot. There won’t be much time for lawmakers to consider the amendment and vote on it before the end of the year, so it may be one of the first proposals introduced in the new general assembly in January.
A group pushing an amendment to abolish property taxes is still gathering signatures to put that before voters. Ax Ohio Tax didn't submit their petitions by July 1 to be on this fall's ballot, saying that they were short of the 413,487 valid signatures needed. Group leaders have said their goal is November 2027, and have repeatedly declined to say how many signatures they have so far.
This proposal is the 15th constitutional amendment offered up by legislators in this General Assembly. There were 10 constitutional amendments proposed by lawmakers in the last two-year session, including the House and Senate resolutions that were combined into a ballot issue in August 2023. That would have required 60% of voters to approve amendments that were backed by citizen groups, but would leave legislator-proposed amendments at a simple majority for passage. It failed with 57% of voters rejecting the idea.
