Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed half a dozen pieces of legislation Friday during a ceremony at the Ohio Statehouse. The slate included five property tax measures as well as a bill known as Avery’s Law meant to prevent dog attacks.
After those signings, DeWine explained he had “reluctantly” signed Ohio Senate Bill 293, which will eliminate the grace period for absentee ballots. He pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing to hear a case out of Louisiana where the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a similar grace period.
“If it wasn’t for the Supreme Court issue, if it wasn’t for this case,” he said, “not only my inclination, but what I would have done, is I would’ve vetoed this.”
The governor expressed concerns about an adverse ruling landing late next summer, and the potential for different rules governing state and federal races. Ballots must be finalized well ahead of election day, House Speaker Matt Huffman said. Unless lawmakers approved legislation with an emergency clause, they might not have enough time to harmonize state law with the ruling. The problem Huffman said, is an emergency clause requires supermajority support in both chambers.
“Are we going to get immediate agreement or enough agreement among all the members of the House, Republican and Democrat, to pass an emergency legislation?” he asked. “I don’t think so.”
DeWine said at least voters are now “on notice” about the changes, and despite his misgivings he came down on the side of certainty, “and to avoid what could have been a real mess in leading up to our election.”
The Ohio Voter Rights Coalition wasn’t having it. The group noted, shortly before passage, lawmakers amended the bill to include “several unfunded, unnecessary provisions” related to state voter rolls.
Those changes “will drastically increase the number of provisional ballots, purge eligible voters from the rolls, and place an additional heavy burden on elections officials,” the coalition said.
“Instead of making Ohio’s elections more reliable for eligible voters to freely and fairly participate in our democratic processes,” the group stated, “Ohio’s leaders have decided they would rather continue to punish voters and leave valid ballots uncounted due to delays by the U.S. Postal Service.”
How we got here on property taxes
State lawmakers are increasingly anxious about growing support for a citizen initiative abolishing property taxes. The grassroots organizers collecting signatures argue people are being taxed out of their homes and they’re done waiting for lawmakers to address the problem.
The simplest fixes would be to expand the homestead exemption, which offers a break to low-income senior citizens, or create a ‘circuit breaker,’ which targets relief based on a homeowner’s income. Republican lawmakers have largely rejected that approach, comparing it to writing a check to bail out homeowners.
Property taxes fund several local services, but schools account up the lion’s share of revenue. And so, during the most recent budget cycle, lawmakers wrote in a handful of provisions making it harder for schools to raise funds through voter-approved levies or to carry over money year-to-year.
DeWine vetoed those proposals and promised to set up a working group to develop recommendations. Lawmakers quickly overrode one DeWine’s vetoes but otherwise kept their powder dry. The working group wound up highlighting several proposals already working through the statehouse and DeWine said he’d use its recommendations to guide his decision making.
“I knew that when I put that group together, I wouldn’t love everything if they came out with,” DeWine said at an annual breakfast this month. “But they came out with good recommendations, and so what I’m going to do is look at those recommendations again and compare those with what the legislature has done.”
What the legislature did
Property tax is calculated in mills — like a percentage but calculated out of 1,000 rather than 100. The state constitution guarantees local authorities the right to levy up to 10 mills (or 1%) of property tax. This is known as “inside” millage. Any other property tax levies must be approved by the voters. That’s known as “outside” millage.
Inside millage has always grown with inflation; as a property becomes more valuable it generated more tax. But a 1970s-era piece of legislation limited outside millage by reducing tax rates to keep tax bills steady. So even as a property becomes more valuable it generates the same tax.
But at a certain point, rates can’t drop any further, and outside millage grows with inflation just like inside millage. That point is the 20-mill floor — the state mandated minimum amount of spending on public schools.
Two of the bills Gov. DeWine signed limit the growth of property taxes by capping increases at the rate of inflation in the overall economy. Ohio House Bill 335 does so for inside millage and Ohio House Bill 186 applies those restrictions to outside millage.
Another proposal relates to the 20-mill floor. Under existing law, emergency or substitute levies don’t get counted toward that minimum funding requirement. But Ohio House Bill 129 would include them — creating more room for the 1970s-era reduction factor to bring rates down.
DeWine also signed off on Ohio House Bill 309, which gives county budget commissions the authority to reduce voted levies if they determine the taxes are “unnecessary” or “excessive,” and Ohio House Bill 124, which gives county auditors greater control over property valuations.
“I think what took place today, with the signing of these bills,” DeWine said, “brings about meaningful tax relief and brings about clarity. No longer will people see the spikes that they have seen.”
He described a relative who’s a realtor telling him about people selling their home because of 30-35% spikes in their property taxes. But as for the citizen initiative, he warned it would be “great mistake.”
“We do have a problem,” he acknowledged. “And I think the people who are putting this on the ballot, their solution, I think, is untenable and makes no sense.”
Avery’s Law
The impetus for Avery’s Law was an attack on 11-year-old Avery Russell of Reynoldsburg last June. In an Ohio House committee hearing, she described how two dogs mauled her during a playdate, and how she’d already had five surgeries with another one coming up.
“We are grateful that she’s taken her story to the public, she’s taking her story to the state legislature,” DeWine said. “Because she did that, you’re able to sign this bill today.”
The measure imposes criminal penalties for negligent owners of dangerous or vicious dogs and requires courts to put down an animal that kills or seriously injures a person. It also requires owners of dogs previously determined to be dangerous under state law to obtain at least $100,000 in liability insurance.
Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.