House Bill (HB) 1 is scheduled for another hearing on Tuesday, March 14th at 2:30 p.m. We anticipate a presentation on Ohio property tax law to be given by the Legislative Service Commission (LSC). You can watch the hearing live on the Ohio Channel, linked here.
The LSC Fiscal Note & Local Impact Statement was released last week (linked here) and confirms a number of things, including the application of HB 920.
Since HB 920 applies, residential and agricultural property taxpayers will have their taxes automatically increased to offset the reduction in valuation created by the bill’s proposed decrease in the assessment percentage to 31.5%. In addition, HB 920 applies to business and commercial property taxpayers who would similarly see their tax rates automatically increase and be in roughly the same position they were in prior to the assessment percentage decrease.
For a detailed discussion of the fiscal impact, we would like to share Dr. Howard Fleeter’s summary, linked here. As discussed in the article, the elimination of the 10% rollback and reduction of the assessment percentage (35% to 31.5%) results in:
- $929 million annual tax increase for residential and agricultural property taxpayers;
- $157 million annual tax decrease for business and commercial property taxpayers; and
- $538 million annual decrease in local tax revenues for schools and local governments.
The specific fiscal impact on any school or local government and their taxpayers will depend on their mixture of inside millage, voted fixed rate levies, and emergency, substitute, and/or bond levies.