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HB 140 Vote Tomorrow! Contacts Needed!

By Katie Johnson posted 05-31-2022 02:45 PM

  
The Senate Ways and Means Committee scheduled a last-minute hearing and vote on House Bill (HB) 140 for tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. in the North Hearing Room. HB 140 significantly modifies the ballot language and election notices for property tax levies. See a summary of the bill here. To date, the bill has received only two hearings in the Senate committee, with the most recent hearing occurring in September of 2021, roughly nine months ago.

We expect the committee to vote on the bill tomorrow, followed later in the day by both a full vote of the Senate and a final concurrence vote in the House, at which point the bill will head to Gov. Mike DeWine.

We strongly urge you to contact your Senators and Representatives to urge them not to pass the bill. If you would like to submit testimony, please send a copy and a witness slip to Maria.Rimmel@ohiosenate.gov. Sample testimony is accessible here.

Our opposition to HB 140 is supported by advice from several law firms that serve as counsel to many school districts, all of whom say the bill’s requirements are flawed. By necessity, ballot language is technical in nature and not meant to be an accurate estimate of the taxes owed by each individual taxpayer should the levy pass. Instead, the current ballot language describes the taxes that will be levied on behalf of the taxing entity. Below are problems we have identified with HB 140:

  • Among other changes, HB 140 revises millage on the ballot to be expressed in terms of $100,000 of appraised value rather than the $100 of tax value. During levy campaigns, school districts and other local governments routinely provide an estimated tax obligation on homes valued at $100,000, but they have the ability to distinguish the various factors that will affect this estimate, as described below. Furthermore, many homes have an appraised value lower than $100,000, making this change in how millage is expressed confusing for many taxpayers.

  • Not all types of property in Ohio are taxed uniformly. “Taxable value”, the term currently used in levy ballot language, accounts for differing rates that apply to various classifications of property.. The “appraised value” standard will not take those differences into account, leading to instances where the tax bill suggested in the ballot language may differ significantly from what will ultimately be owed.

  • The various differences among taxpayers, levies, and properties mean the calculation of the actual taxes on an individual property derived from a levy will vary widely. For example, there are differences between Class 1 (Residential and Agriculture (CAUV)) and Class 2 (Commercial) Property, since the calculation is most often different among the two classes. Additionally, property valued using the CAUV method is not valued for tax purposes based on market value.

  • Other examples include taxpayers with specific discounts like the Homestead Exemption, and how the type of levy has a bearing on what a property owner will pay (for renewal levies, residential property qualifies for the state-paid 10% rollback; commercial properties do not). Finally, HB 920 means property owners often pay lower effective rates for levies rather than the full voted rate after the initial year of implementation.

Ultimately, it makes it impossible to accurately represent within the ballot language the taxes that various taxpayers will owe, making HB 140 a flawed piece of legislation and unfair to both taxpayers and school districts.

Please contact us if you have questions.

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