Testimony for House Bill (HB) 123, the legislation that modifies the community reinvestment area (CRA) property tax abatement program and school boards’ involvement in the process, has been scheduled in the Senate Ways and Means Committee for this Tuesday, April 5th, at 11:00 a.m.
The House has already passed this bill, so it is critical that the Senate Ways and Means Committee hear from you. This could be your final opportunity to testify.
Please consider submitting written or in-person testimony and witness slip (linked here) to Maria.Rimmel@ohiosenate.gov by 11:00 a.m. on Monday, April 4th. We have created a form template to assist in drafting your testimony (linked here).
To recap, HB 123’s modifications to the state’s current CRA law include, among others, the following:
- Repeals annual reporting requirements, eliminating locally impacted boards of education from receiving reports on agreements that are in place during a given year.
- Increases the threshold requiring board approval from 50% to 75% for a CRA property tax exemption for a commercial or industrial project.
- Increases the threshold from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 (indexed to inflation) to trigger the requirement that municipalities share payroll tax revenue generated by new employees at a large CRA commercial or industrial project with the school district encompassing that project.
It is critical that your Senator and the members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee hear from you and understand the impact this bill will have on your school district. Your district’s story needs to be heard as the Committee considers whether or not they should pass this bill out of Committee and to the Senate floor for a vote.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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