COLUMBUS, Ohio — Despite saying they have plans, it is unclear how the candidates for Ohio governor will pay for their property tax cuts.
Solving the property tax crisis won’t be easy, and the major candidates have different ideas on how to fix it.
Previously, Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy has advocated for a total elimination of property taxes. Gov. Mike DeWine said that would be "devastating" for local governments, including police, fire, EMS and schools. It would also cost the state $20 billion a year, according to the conservative think tank Tax Foundation's study.
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"What, for you, are the first resources at the state or local level that will need to be cut in order to lower property taxes?" I asked Ramaswamy at a campaign event on Tuesday afternoon.
"So, I actually, respectfully, resist the premise because a lot of the property tax appreciation — you want to know where it came from, Morgan? It came from appreciation in the prices of property and real estate since the pandemic," Ramaswamy responded.
He blamed the federal government for spending too much money, which he said bumped up evaluations in homes.
Instead of a total slashing, he said he now wants to roll back property taxes to 2020 and earlier levels and then cap their growth.
"One of the things that our property taxes were paying for before the pandemic were our schools, and our schools were actually performing better, if you look at test scores and other metrics back then than they are today, which suggests that we will at once be able to roll back those property taxes — not eliminate them, OK? But a reasonable rollback to where they were just a few years ago before the end of the pandemic," Ramaswamy said.
He specifically said that he does not want to hurt local police or fire.
"The economic growth that we bring to our state, that I've spoken about here, will bring in added sources of revenue that give us a financial cushion, including from a state level, to fill any gaps to ensure that important local services aren't left in the lurch during that transition," he continued.
Democrat Dr. Amy Acton argues that defunding schools will only make taxes worse.
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"Property taxes are going up because our statehouse is not fully funding the local funds, which fund our schools," Acton said in a previous interview.
By increasing state funding for education, she said, schools won’t need to rely on increasing property taxes. She also wants to expand the homestead exemption.
"When you love Ohio ... you do not tell Ohioans that affordability is a buzzword, and you do not pitch tax schemes that line the pockets of billionaires while raising costs for the rest of us," Acton said.
Neither has explicitly said which programs would have to be cut to accomplish their goals, but Acton has talked about reallocating money from special interests at the Statehouse and giving it back to local governments.
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"[Help for] our first responders, our disability and mental health services and so much more in our community," she said.
Libertarian candidate Don Kissick, according to his campaign website, is fully supportive of repealing property taxes.
"We prefer to see local consumption-based taxes and because there is no transparency around where the lottery is going (since it's a general education fund), we're thinking it is being used as a stopgap for other areas of the budget. In that, if we balance the budget and eliminate corporate welfare for the larger institutions, we can save a ton of money for Ohioans," the campaign website said.
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