Ohio House Finance Chair Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, told reporters Tuesday that 528 of Ohio’s 609 school districts had a carryover balance of at least 25% of their prior years’ operating expenses.
“These carryovers have been growing very, very steadily over time,” Stewart said. “In 2012, that carryover cash balance was $3.6 billion for the entire state, it’s grown in a little more than a decade to $10.5 billion today.”
Stewart framed this trigger as a way to to deliver immediate relief to property owners who have seen their rates skyrocket in recent years. “We need to understand that these carry over excess funds are derived from the property tax bills,” he said.
House Finance Committee Ranking Member Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Westlake, said the proposal, while ambitious (it would impact 86% of school districts if it were put in place today), misses the mark on providing long-term relief.
She called it a “one-time shift of money” and argued the policy would encourage, rather than dissuade, school districts to spend money wantonly.
“I see nothing fiscally responsibly about making our school districts not be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Sweeney said. “This does not solve our problems.”
When this news outlet asked Stewart if he had any concerns about creating inverse incentives, he admitted that it was a point of debate in the budget process.
“I think at some level, though, we need to trust that we elect school boards to be that check on spending,” Stewart said.
On the other side of that coin, Stewart said he hopes the policy would incentivize Ohioans to get more engaged with their school boards and monitor their spending.
“I think local Ohioans are going to have to be engaged and kind of be that extra set of eyes at the local level to say, ‘We’re not going to let you do six new turf fields just to spend that money,‘” Stewart said. “But that’s a decision at the local level that I think local taxpayers need to hold their school boards accountable for if they go down that road.”
Property tax reform
Property tax relief is a stated priority for lawmakers this year, though DeWine’s original budget proposal was silent on it.
Many taxpayers took a big hit last year following the 2023 triennial update when property values soared by an average 37% in Butler County, 34% in Montgomery County and 30% in Greene County. Warren County underwent the sexennial reappraisal last year and the average increase is 27%.
The Ohio General Assembly has introduced 21 bills that touch property tax reform this year, 15 in the House and six in the Senate. None of them reflect the plan that was introduced in the House spending plan.
Republican state Rep. David Thomas — former Ashtabula County auditor — was tapped by House leadership to shepherd property tax reform, he has introduced six bills so far. He told this media outlet the proposed budget takes aim at the system which will eventually bring long-term relief.
“Our tax dollars at the state level did not increase or become excessive because of property taxes, those were at the local level,” Thomas said. “We’re essentially giving aid and help to those local property tax payers from where their money actually went which was their school district. It’s a way to get at the entire system and help essentially everyone by decreasing their tax rate as a system, not as a special carve out.”
