Ohio residents take lead on scrapping property taxes

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Giulia Carbonaro

By Giulia Carbonaro

Senior Reporter

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Ohio residents bogged down by rising bills have taken relief into their own hands, pushing forward a proposed constitutional amendment that could abolish property taxes in the state.

Why It Matters

A movement to drastically reduce or even eliminate property taxes is gaining momentum across the U.S., especially in GOP-led states, after years of rising home values have left homeowners struggling with higher bills.

What To Know

Between 2019 and 2024, property taxes rose in nearly every U.S. metropolitan area, according to a Redfin study, including in Ohio, which is normally considered to have a relatively affordable housing market.

From 2019 to 2023, the median property tax in Ohio rose by 23 percent, above the national average of 21.6 percent, Axios reported. As of 2023, according to the Tax Foundation, Ohio had the eighth-highest effective property tax rate in the country at 1.3 percent, despite being 16th on Realtor.com's list of the most affordable markets in the country.

Some Ohioans appeared to have had enough. The campaign to eliminate property taxes in the Buckeye State is being led by Citizens for Property Tax Reform, a grassroots movement spearheaded by homeowner Beth Blackmarr.

"I opened my mail one day last year and saw a letter from the county," Blackmarr told Newsweek. "I thought, 'Oh, that's a junk mail, and I almost threw it away. And then something caught my eye; it had the word valuation on it. I pulled it back out, I looked at it, and I said, 'Oh, my goodness.' They were increasing my property valuation by 51.9 percent. It was shocking."

Blackmarr, a resident of Lakewood, has been living in the same home since 1996, when she bought the property for $76,000. Now, it is valued at $299,000.

After getting the letter notifying her of her home's new assessment, Blackmarr called city authorities to warn them that increases were hitting senior citizens hard.

"I told them, we're the ones that kind of hold down the neighborhood, we've been here for years and years. Maybe you all might want to go to fight for us because our property values are going through the roof," she said. "And they said, 'Well, there's really nothing we can do.' One person even said to me, 'If you can't afford your property taxes, maybe you might want to move.' And then I got mad."

Blackmarr has no intention of being priced out of her home, so she has sprung into action. Together with Keith Davey, founder of the grassroots group Save Our Seniors, she launched Citizens for Property Tax Reform to spur property tax reform in the state.

Forcing Change On Reluctant Lawmakers

According to Blackmarr, Ohio lawmakers have had plenty of opportunities to offer relief to homeowners struggling with rising property taxes but have been unwilling or unable to address the issue, which is hitting seniors the hardest.

"When a Legislature tries to make a change in property tax law, it's like a wobbly tower," she said. "You pull one brick out and everything crumbles. It's not easy to change property tax, not easy to make reforms. However, there were simple reforms that they could have done that they made a decision not to do."

John T. Plecnik, associate professor of law at Cleveland State University and Lake County commissioner, largely agrees. "Lawmakers in Ohio could and absolutely should have done more to help homeowners," he told Newsweek.

"Thanks to inflation, property taxes have skyrocketed in Ohio. However, these inflationary increases were not a surprise to anyone. This was a predictable result of the laws on the books, and state lawmakers had years to address the problem," he explained.

"More than two years after the Ohio General Assembly voted to form the Joint Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform, the only tangible result is a report that is already gathering dust. Dozens of bills have been proposed, but most are half measures, and nothing substantive has passed."

That's why Blackmarr decided that Ohio homeowners had to take the situation into their own hands, promoting the changes they want to see. The group's campaign was initially focused on seniors but has extended to a full-scale campaign for all homeowners.

"We have a real problem with seniors being displaced by the exorbitant property taxes. This is no joke," Blackmarr said. "We've got seniors now that are paying more for their property tax than they paid for their original mortgage payment."

How Would Eliminating Property Taxes Impact Ohio?

The initiative has its critics, who fear that abolishing property taxes would leave local governments without sufficient funds to support crucial public services. According to the Ohio Department of Taxation, $18.5 billion was collected in the state in 2023, which would be hard to replace with other sources of revenue.

According to Plecnik, if Ohio became the first state to abolish property taxes, the impact would be twofold. "First, there would be a massive influx in population and investment by residents and businesses. People vote with their feet, and migration within the United States has consistently been from high-taxed jurisdictions, like New York, California and Ohio, to low-taxed jurisdictions, like Texas and Florida," he said.

"Second, there would be the challenge of funding state and local government without the use of property taxes. The first impact would largely solve the second, because income and sales tax receipts would naturally rise over time as population and profits increase. However, there would be a very real need to bridge the funding gap in the short-term."

Blackmarr said that concerns over how to fund public services is reasonable and fair. "It's common sense to ask how are we going to do this, but of course we're going to do this. There's many ways to do it," she said. "The idea is to spread the pain of taxation across Ohio citizens, instead of just having a portion of Ohio citizens contributing to these services.

"Because you have to have these services, they're not going away. Public schools aren't going away. We need to find a different way to fund these. It already exists. You can add a couple points to self-tax and half a point to income tax, and you've covered your bases."

As a tax professor and local elected official, Plecnik said that the solution to government spending is not raising taxes or borrowing money. "It is cutting spending," he said. "Here are the facts. In Ohio, property taxes raise about $20 billion a year in revenue. Ohio's state budget is roughly $100 billion a year. This means a 20 percent cut to the state budget would fund the entire delta," he explained.

"When you realize that Ohio's state budget was about 20 percent less in 2023 than it is today, you recognize that abolishing property taxes is very doable if you simply cut the fat. Frankly, Ohio taxpayers are sick and tired of paying for billion dollar subsidies for football stadiums and power plants. They want their money back, and I don't blame them."

What People Are Saying

House Minority Leader Allison Russo, in a statement after the Ohio Ballot Board's meeting: "I think the effort to put this forward as a constitutional ballot amendment clearly demonstrates frustration by Ohioans on this issue. When the Legislature doesn't respond, the people usually step up—often through ballot initiatives.

"However, this particular initiative concerns me because while it eliminates the property tax, it doesn't explain how we'll replace the funds that support police, fire departments, public education and other critical services. Democrats have been introducing bipartisan legislation for the last couple of General Assemblies to provide direct relief, but none have been prioritized by the Republican majority. It's beyond time to provide direct property tax relief for Ohioans."

Ohio state Senator Bill DeMora, in a statement shared by ABC6: "It's frustration of citizens that the Legislature won't take action on common-sense issues.

"Ending property taxes would be a disaster for the state of Ohio and local governments. I think it's a stupid idea, but again, I understand the frustration of people because their property taxes are too high, and the Legislature hasn't acted."

What Happens Next

The measure, despite criticism and concerns, is moving forward. Last month, the Ohio Ballot Board signed off on the proposal to amend the Ohio constitution to abolish property taxes, giving official permission to Citizens for Property Tax Reform to start gathering signatures supporting the measure's appearance on the November ballot.

"I personally believe that eliminating property taxes via a constitutional amendment is the second-best solution," Plecnik said.

"Citizens should not be forced to do their state legislators' job for them. If I were a state representative or senator, I would pass a comprehensive property tax reform plan now."

Blackmarr said she is working non-stop to collect enough signatures to get the initiative on the ballot, with the help of many supportive Ohioans.

"These are regular people who are upset about property tax, who have petitions out there and they are collecting signatures. There's no big money backers at all. We could use a few. But this is all done by the citizens of Ohio," she said.

Citizens for Property Tax Reform's campaign needs to collect at least 413,000 valid signatures from registered voters in half of the state's 88 counties by July 1. If they do, the measure will appear on the November ballot, and it will be up to voters to decide whether they want to keep or eliminate property taxes.

"We need at a minimum 413,000 signatures. However, there will be signatures that are rejected for one reason or another. So we have a minimum, really, of 600,000 signatures," Blackmarr said.

"We are going door to door. We are going word of mouth. We have signature stations across Ohio in businesses where people can go in and sign if they'd like to. We've got people that are having meetings and signing events. People that are going to festivals, malls, Walmarts. I mean, everywhere. It's pretty impressive what people are doing."

The measure is among nearly 20 other bills that Ohio lawmakers are considering to reduce property taxes.

Update 6/3/25, 1:15 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comments from Beth Blackmarr.

Update 6/4/25, 5:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comments from John T. Plecnik.

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