Hey Glendale Ohio, Pave My Street!

About Property Taxes in Ohio

By Dan Regenold

I live in the Village of Glendale, Ohio. Glendale is a quaint historic district in Hamilton County, known for beautiful tree-lined streets and many gracious old homes. And, yet, if you were to drive down my street today you would think I live in a war zone because the street is so torn up that it’s barely drivable. In fact, the pavement is so bad that I’ve even asked Glendale to place warning signs on it to alert drivers to the danger.

The terrible condition of my street leans into the number one issue in Ohio right now: the high property taxes that endanger Ohioans’ ability to own their own homes. TaxFoundation.org shows Ohio as having the 8th highest property taxes in the nation. Nearly every day The Enquirer runs another article about this high property tax issue, which has impacted so many of us.

Last year, Republican legislators inspired some hope that Ohio’s property tax problem would be addressed when they established a committee to examine the issue. However, at a recent meeting with one of the key members of this committee it became obvious to me that Republicans do not view this as an important issue and that they aren’t serious about resolving it. The legislation this committee introduced in the House and Senate deals only with inside and outside millage rates, and its language is such that it’s impossible to understand what their plan is (which I assume is intentional…).

The best solution I’ve seen for fixing Ohio’s property tax comes from Maurice Thompson of the 1851 Center for Constitution Law in Columbus. Maurice is a public action attorney who takes on Constitutional issues. It’s obvious his plan is serious because it is simple, written in easy-to-understand language, and limited to one page. The plan — called “Property Tax Relief Amendment” — proposes to limit property tax increases in any single year to 3%.

At this point it is critical that we institute some kind of cap on how high property taxes go in order to protect Ohio homeowners now.

So back, to Glendale. The roads are a mess and the Village has decided to put forward a $6 million plan over 10 years to repave the 13 worst roads. Despite having a rainy-day fund of $7 million, Glendale has decided that the property owners will pay the entire cost of repaving Glendale’s roads by putting a levy on the ballot this November.

When I discussed this 25.5% Glendale property tax increase with Glendale’s council, they were adamant that there was no way they could contribute monies, saying “Our budget is just too tight.” When I told them about the middle-aged struggling lady up the street who calls me every time her property tax increases, it was like looking at a deer in headlights. Their message was clear: “This is our money, not yours, and we need it.”

Politicians always feel entitled, and if this attitude is left unchecked it spirals out of control. It is our job—yours and mine–to strip them of this feeling of entitlement. We all have bills, responsibilities and lives to lead, and we shouldn’t be burdened with additional worries about outrageous 25% property tax increases. If we don’t force Ohio legislators to cap property tax increases, we can expect even more unexpected problems to smack us right in our pocketbooks.

I encourage you to read Maurice Thompson’s simple property tax plan, and to vote for political candidates that will enact change to protect us, whichever party that is. And if that negatively impacts politicians and governmental entities… let them eat cake.