The big issue of the 2026 campaign likely will be affordability: the affordability of groceries, the affordability of health care, and the affordability of housing. Candidates are falling all over themselves trying to tell us how they are going to help us make more money and help us save money.
A big piece of the housing affordability equation is property taxes. Because of rapidly rising property values over the past ten years, and voters’ willingness to pass levies, property taxes have increased sharply.
The median Ohio property tax bill has jumped about 25 percent in recent years to stand at just more than three thousand dollars a year. Obviously, many homeowners pay a lot more than that, while others pay less.
The Tax Foundation says Ohio has the eighth-highest effective property tax rate in the country.
With each revaluation notice and with each new property tax bill, politicians hear from their angry constituents.
Some of those constituents say their lawmakers have not done enough to control property tax rates, so they want to go to the voters.
The group Citizens for Property Tax Reform is collecting signatures to put a proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot. If it gets on the ballot and if it passes, it would eliminate property taxes in the state of Ohio.
State and local government officials say that would be devastating to local schools and services. Right now, property taxes generate twenty-four billion dollars a year, which is more than is collected through the state’s income and sales taxes combined.
Joining us this week on Snollygoster is one of the leaders of the group, Beth Blackmarr.
Snollygoster of the week
President JD Vance and Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy, in a move that statehouse insiders have noted, are involved in the GOP primary fight for state auditor. JD Vance has endorsed former state Rep. Jay Edwards, and Vivek Ramaswamy has endorsed state Senator Kristina Roegner. The insiders smell the first skirmish in a budding rivalry between two potential candidates for president in 2028.
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Mike Thompson: This podcast was recorded Thursday, February 12th at 1034 a.m. Things may have changed by the time you hear this. Yeah, like Super Bowl halftime performances will go back to just things only very casual football fans care about. You know, I usually do the dishes during the Super Bowl halftimes show. Let's talk politics.
This is Snollygoster, WOSU Public Media's weekly look at Ohio politics and all those snollygosters, those shrewd politicians who hated everything, bad bunny had to sing even though they couldn't understand a word of it. I'm Mike Thompson.
Coming up in the podcast, a brewing rivalry between two of Ohio's top Republicans. But first, the big issue of the 2026 campaign likely will be affordability. The affordability of groceries, the affordability of health care, the affordable of housing. Candidates are falling all over themselves trying to tell us how they're going to help us make more money and help us save money.
A big piece of the housing affordability equation is property taxes. Because of rapidly rising property values the past 10 years and voters willingness to pass levies, property taxes have increased sharply. The median Ohio property tax bill has jumped about 25% in recent years, to stand at just more than $3,000 a year. Obviously, many homeowners pay a lot more than that, others pay a little less. The Tax Foundation says Ohio has the eighth-highest effective property tax rate in the country. With each revaluation notice, with each new property tax, politicians hear from their angry constituents.
Some of those constituents say their lawmakers have not done enough to control property taxes, so they want to go to the voters. The group Citizens for Property Tax Reform is collecting signatures to put a proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot. If it gets on November's ballot and it passes, it would eliminate property taxes in the state of Ohio.
State and local government officials say that would be devastating to local schools and local services. Right now, property taxes generate $24 billion a year. $24,000,000 a year, that's more than is collected through the state's income and sales taxes combined. Joining us this week on Snollygoster is one of the leaders of the group, Beth Blackmarr. She is the media director for the group Citizens for Property Tax Reform. Beth, welcome to Snollygoster.
Beth Blackmarr: Thanks so much. Glad to be here.
Thompson: Before we get into the proposed amendments in your campaign, tell us how you got to be involved in this.
Blackmarr: I got my bill.
Thompson: Your tax bill.
Blackmarr: I got my property tax bill. Um, well, what I got was it wasn't a bill. It was the revaluation in 2024 in Cuyahoga County. And I'll tell you, I almost threw it in the garbage. I thought it was, I was going through my mail and I stand over the recycle bin when I'm going through. And I toss, toss, tossed, tossed. And I tossed and I looked and I'm like, you know what? That's his value something on it. So I'm always looking for. So I'm like, I'm gonna pull that up. And I looked at him like, holy cow. That's my revaluation for Cuyahoga County.
Thompson: How much did it go up?
Blackmarr: Oh, I almost hit the floor. It went up 51.9%. It went from $188,000 to $299,000. Now, I have a, I live in Lakewood, Ohio, right outside of Cleveland. I have a little two-bedroom bungalow on a postage stamp, a century home. It hasn't been updated other than the electric in the roof and those kinds of things. They sell plaster walls and. All the original windows and everything. Yeah, so I panicked and literally almost hit the floor because I knew I dig the quick math and I'm like this is going to hurt.
Thompson: You were stunned by what your tax bill was going to be and you got involved in this effort to try to do something about it, which I guess is the definition of a grassroots campaign. And that's what you say your campaign is. So let's go start with the name of the group. It says your name of the Group is Citizens for Property Tax Reform. But if your amendment passes, property taxes would disappear. Shouldn't your group be called Citizens for the End of Property Taxes?
Blackmarr: Well, we didn't start with that. You know, we, didn't with that when we started this back in 2024, actually this, this group, the, the beginnings of this group goes back further. Um, maybe, you know, a few years further back, it was save our seniors SOS, uh, because seniors get hit particularly hard with property taxes and what's going on with the property tax rates. But when I, when I. Started calling around, trying to figure out what to do about this increase in valuation, this 51.9% increase in valuation. I saw an ad on Facebook or a post on Facebook for SOS, Save Our Seniors, property tax, blah, blah. And that's how I got involved because I showed up to their meeting.
Thompson: So you were looking to reform it first and then what happened?
Blackmarr: Yeah, absolutely. We were looking to reform it. We thought, you know, the idea was that there's power in numbers, right? That we could talk to the legislature and, you know, if we bring enough people forward to fight this thing and to try and get some reforms, why, you know, that'll make a difference. We talked to legislators and they were like, yeah, yep, we're on board with this. We've got this going and that going. And nothing ever made it to the floor. There were, I don't know, like 40 pieces of legislation that just collected dust. They didn't do anything. At the end of 2024, there was a, I think it was HB 187 that would have given some relief to people on homestead with the homestay exemption and I think bedrooms and spouses are better. I mean it was a very Just the minimal like throw us a bone and do you know they didn't do it? They they didn't they didn they didn get it to the governor's desk what they did instead was they did a bathroom bill that nobody cared about and they they did The they did the six hundred million Do that to the Haslam's?
Thompson: So the bathroom bill, just to clarify, was the restrictions on transgender people using public bathrooms. And then the $600 million was the use of unclaimed funds to help build the Browns new domed stadium.
Blackmarr: Correct. And if you ask, I mean, I've talked at this point to thousands of people on this. And, you know, I asked over and over again, would you have rather had a bill on property tax or a bill or the bathroom bill that they passed? And over and over again it was, I could care less about the bathrooms. I need them to do something that really is going to help me. I needed something done about my property taxes.
Thompson: So you decided to go big or go home. Let's get rid of them all.
Blackmarr: I did. We did. I mean, this was decided amongst there's another there's there's a group of five people, they're called the Committee to Abolish Property Taxes, and they're the ones that's what happened. I means, nothing was going to happen in Columbus. We know this. I mean, we were done with that. They were not going to do anything without maximum pressure, right? Yeah. So the idea was formed that, you know, let's do a petition. And of course, you know there's several ways you could do that. But the simplest, most straightforward way to do it. Ultimately was to eliminate property taxes altogether because anything else could have been challenged six ways to Sunday So the best way to do this was to put forth, you know that it was decided amongst them and I disagreed at first I did agree. I'm like, hey, well, you don't why don't we do a prop 13? So on so forth. Yeah limit. Yeah. Yeah You know, I saw the wisdom in it
Thompson: So, the bottom line is, if this were to pass, $24 billion would disappear overnight. What would you suggest the government do to make up for that money?
Blackmarr: Okay, so the sky is not going to fall. There are several other mechanisms that they can use. You know, should this amendment pass, state legislator, it's up to the state legislature to do their job, you know, and enable townships, EMS, fire departments, libraries to collect funding by other methods. You know, there's school district income taxes, there are sales tax, SIN taxes, all of these things can be used or and even as far as direct billing. Now, you know, I I'll take a bill. I mean, like like I do for trash and and and water and, you know, send me a bill
Thompson: With all of those things, that's a lot of money. Let's talk about the efficiency of that first. If you try to piece this all together with other bills and other taxes, doesn't that make it more complicated and more perhaps outfair?
Blackmarr: I don't know how you get more complicated than the property tax law as it stands.
Thompson: You have a point there.
Blackmarr: I don't know how can you possibly get more complicate than that.
Thompson: Yeah, if you've looked at your talk, if you've look at your property, I've looked at mine, there's like 12 different property taxes on mine.
Blackmarr: Oh my gosh.
Thompson: Gosh, you've got a point there, but so basically other taxes, other fees would have to go up if you eliminated the property tax. So for a taxpayer, does it really matter? They're still going to be paying for what they're paying now. Just won't be associated with their property tax bill. It'll be their rubbish fee or it'll be there. Income tax is going up or maybe sales tax is going up.
Blackmarr: I'm glad you asked. Yes, it makes a huge difference because right now we don't own our homes. Right now, you own your couch, you on your TV, you on you dining room table. You own those things. Now, what if they came back every year and said, you know what, if you bought a couch today, it would be $3,000 instead of the $2,000 you paid. So what we're gonna do is we're going to charge you the tax that you would have paid on that $3000 couch. And if you don't, we're going to take your couch. Here's the thing. We don't own our homes. We do not own our home. And that is the problem. It's the problem.
Thompson: If you were to sell your home, now your home has increased in value. You described your home at the start of this podcast. If you would have sell your own today, you would get much more than what you paid for it.
Blackmarr: Right. And then then I could be taxed on it.
Thompson: You would propose sort of a Uber sales tax on real estate sales as a better alternative.
Blackmarr: Real estate sales or anything else. I mean, you know, a value added tax of that tax, you know it could be done any number of ways, right? What I what I think is unconscionable is people who own their homes, who have spent 30 years paying for them, losing their homes because they can't pay property tax, they were ill, they couldn't pay their property tax or you know which we can track that we can look at those numbers. You know, so you don't own your home because if you, if you don't pay your property tax, the real owner shows up at your door. Right. The other thing is the one hidden demographic, uh, is people that pay a mortgage and let's say you've had that mortgage for 20 years, your payment was that there was, I'll use this woman as an example, because it was so dramatic. Um, she, Albert Lake. About 75 years old, she had a mortgage that was $450 a month, barging at any price. And then they raised the property tax. They raised the valuation on her house. Well, I think it was $9.50 a month she got in Social Security as a widow. And her monthly payment went up to $750 a month. She couldn't pay it.
Thompson: So Governor DeWine says, if this proposal passes, this is what he said this week, Ohio sales taxes would go from 6% to 20%. And as you know, sales taxes are very regressive. If you own a mansion in suburban Columbus, you pay the same tax on a sofa, to use your furniture metaphor, as someone making $900 a month in Social Security. Is that a fair way to do it?
Blackmarr: Well, let's do the math, shall we? Because I did. And I would have saved, at a 20% sale tax rate, I would've saved 65% last year. 65% of my property tax bill, I wouldn't have paid it. I would pay 35% of that. And here's the thing on a regressive tax. It's interesting that people say that. We don't pay tax on food and we don't pay tax of medicine. I don't know what people think poor people are buying, but I'm not rich, okay? I've been able to buy a few things from my home, but I never bought a brand new stick of furniture until about 10 years ago. So, you know, to say it's regressive says that people who are not of means are out spending money like crazy and they're not. They're buying food, they're buying medicine, they're buyin' the bare necessities. If they're lucky.
Thompson: How about income taxes, would you support as a way to get away from property taxes, which you have eloquently pointed out might be unfair. Would income taxes which are graduated to some degree, the more money you make, the more income taxes you pay, is that a more fair way to spread out the tax burden that schools, police departments, fire departments need?
Blackmarr: I absolutely think so. I absolutely thing so, because it's an actual tax. Property taxes and a tax is a penalty. And it's a penalty on money you've never received. I'm paying taxes on money that I never received, I haven't sold my home. I mean, if I have my way, when I leave my home, it'll be feet first. I'm not planning on moving. I have some health problems and I've got stair glides in here and I'm, you know, I'm moving. Not until I have to or pass away.
Thompson: So you would support municipal income taxes. The Westerville School District, which is just outside of Columbus here, voters in November approved an income tax increase to pay for schools rather than a property tax. Westervill had seen a couple of property tax levies go down to defeat. So they said, let's try something different. Let's try the income tax. And it had some protections for folks on fixed incomes and retirees. Is that something you would supports?
Blackmarr: Absolutely, I think that we need to be taxed on what is taxable. And I think we need own our homes outright. I don't think they should be at risk of foreclosure.
Thompson: The property owners get something for those taxes. I know you argue that the bills are too high and they've gone up too quickly, but you get good schools, which helps your community and also helps the property value of your home if you live in such a community. You get police and fire protection. Your streets get cleared of snow eventually if you lived in the city of Columbus. If those schools and services start to decline and property values suffer, does that... You know what I'm saying? Somebody has to pay for these services.
Blackmarr: What makes you think that it's going to decline? I mean, if we, you know, here's the thing, this is, we can't just eliminate property tax and hope everything's gonna be fine. You know, this has to shift to another form. It has to ship. And there are mechanisms already in the Ohio revised code that would allow us to do this in large part.
Thompson: Speaking of changes in the Ohio Revised Code, the legislature has made a few changes in recent months, prompted by your effort, we're guessing. Has it been enough? Have you been pleased with what you've seen?
Blackmarr: Okay, so let me break this down. I think you said it best when you said that the state gets about $24 billion a year in property tax revenue, right? So they are proposing with their changes in legislation that, and it sounds great when you don't do the math. Okay, they're saying that over three years, they're going to return $2 billion in taxes to people, $2 billion. Well, in three years they would have accumulated $72 billion in property tax.
Thompson: If my math is correct, you are correct, and I'm not the best at math, but I think you're right.
Blackmarr: 2 billion is a drop in the bucket. That's barely better than a sharp stick in the eye, you know? 2 billion, is nothing. I mean, that's like, you now, I don't know. Am I gonna, you what am I gonna do? I don't wanna spend it all in one place. I mean I, the thing that I'm, the thing I have hope about is that they are making changes, but they are far from good enough. So they are far from what we need because listen People think that there are people that are getting put out of their homes. And this is something to consider, carefully consider. Senior citizens are the fastest growing demographic of homeless. That's no joke. There's no question. In Ohio, senior citizens are the fastest-growing demographic of homeless people. That's the reality.
Thompson: Your campaign must gather 413,000 signatures, which really means you need to gather roughly double that to make sure you have enough valid signatures to present to the Secretary of State's office. Your deadline is July 1st. How many signatures have you all collected so far?
Blackmarr: Well, we're not giving out that number, but I will say this, we've been going gangbusters this last month. I can't even believe it. We've been doing so well. We're doing really well. We need more, but we are doing exceptionally well in particular this month. I thought it would be one of the worst because of the cold and all of that, but we've done really well
Thompson: Can you give me a ballpark? People are really supporting us. Are you halfway there? Are you a third of the way there?
Blackmarr: It's not a ballpark because here's the thing, it's like with voting. You don't wanna, if the votes are too low, if it's not enough, people are gonna get discouraged. If it's too much, then they won't be motivated.
Thompson: The reason why I ask that question is, you are a grassroots organization and there are skeptics at the State House, and among the State house, the Capitol Square surroundings, insiders shall we say, that are skeptical that you'll be able to get on the ballot. How confident are you you'll be able to get on the ballots?
Blackmarr: I'm pretty confident. I mean, here's the thing, if we don't make our mark by July 1st, we get to keep collecting. Those signatures are good indefinitely unless you die or move. So you know, we're not going to stop. I mean just because we don t get it by July first if we do not, which I think we will, I mean based on what we're doing this month, holy nackerel, I think we will. But if we don't, then we keep collecting.
Thompson: By using any paid collectors of any paid firms to help you. Let most of these campaigns say it's so hard to get on the power in Ohio.
Blackmarr: I wish I was here's the thing this is all volunteer, which is why we're you know, it's it's been so kind of I don't know I guess you'd say haphazard it's like it's glued glued and taped together our our initiative but you know that's the beauty of it because it is all grassroots these are all volunteers including me all volunteer because you know when you have somebody back this say you know it's not like we haven't gotten offers. To do back this, get paid circulators, but then we have to do it their way. And we have send their message because money isn't free. You don't get a bunch of money to back a movement for free.
Thompson: So this is an expensive endeavor. Passing a constitutional amendment is expensive. Let's take the redistricting campaign from a couple years ago. They spent at least $12 million two years ago and lost. If this gets on the ballot, the establishment, the county governments, city governments, state governments, they're going to throw the kitchen sink at this to defeat it. They're going be able to raise a lot of money. Will you be able to raise money to match them?
Blackmarr: I don't know. I don't know what they'll do or will do. You know, I'm gonna be really thrilled when we get, when we make our number of signatures that we need and then we're gonna go from there. You know this is something that-
Thompson: Would you be willing to, if you get on the ballot, would you be willing to sit down with lawmakers and come up with a compromise to avoid putting this before voters? It's happened before, where an amendment gets either close to the ballot or on the ballot and then they sit down with lawmakers, and they pass a law or pass an alternative amendment to live up to the name of your group, which is to reform property taxes rather than eliminate it. Is that something you'd be willing, your group would be willing to consider.
Blackmarr: Well, here's the deal. My thought about this is that they need to compete with this initiative. If they're gonna do something and they really wanna do something and they wanna make a change, they need compete with us. They need to get something to the ballot instead of trying to shoot this down because the barn doors open, cows everywhere, okay? They need get their stuff together. And compete with this. They need to really do something for the citizens of Ohio. You know, it's not my place to negotiate this. These are, you know, there are people that have signed this petition and that's what they want and that what they think should happen. I think we need to do something about, you know I mean, as I go along here, I'm even more firm in that we should not have a lean, a virtual lean on our home. Forever. I mean, this is we get to stay in our homes conditionally that we pay this property tax and it should not be that we should have tax on other items, but not things we own that we bought and we paid for.
Thompson: Beth Blackmarr, she is the leader of the group Citizens for Property Tax Reform. Beth, we appreciate your time. You're very passionate about this and we will talk to you again, I am sure.
Blackmarr: All right, thank you so much. Thanks so much for having me.
Thompson: Thank you, we'll be right back. Time now for our Snollygoster of the Week segment where we honor the shrewdest politician and political move of the past week. This week, we give it to Vice President J.D. Vance and Republican candidate for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy. They share it. In a move that state house insiders have noted, it involves the GOP primary fight for state auditor. I know you're all paying very, very, very close attention to this, but stay with me here. J.D. Vance. Has endorsed former state rep Jay Edwards, and Vivek Ramaswamy has endorsed state senator Christina Roegner. The insiders smell the first skirmish in a budding rivalry between two potential candidates for president in 2028. And it starts in the Republican primary for state auditor. Hmm, inside shrewdness that we will keep an eye on. That will do it for this week's edition of Snollygoster, which is part of the NPR Network. As always, try to give us a good review on Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts, tell your friends about us. For our digital producer, Michael DeBose, and our audio engineer, Dalton Jones, I'm Mike Thompson for Snollygoster from WOSU Public Media.