Replacement and emergency levies soon will be a thing of the past after the Ohio Senate voted Wednesday to override a veto from Gov. Mike DeWine that previously preserved them.
The House previously did the same in July, which means the veto override now is complete.
Wednesday’s vote in the Senate was 21-11, with two Republicans joining Democrats in voting “no.”
The change won’t offer any immediate property tax relief. But it will limit local governments’ options in seeking tax increases in the future. Republicans say it will make Ohio’s property tax system a little simpler, since “replacement” levies – which typically result in tax increases – are easily confused with “renewal” levies, which typically don’t increase taxes.
The veto override comes a day after a working group of school superintendents, county auditors and former legislators convened by DeWine to address property tax reforms issued a report containing 20 recommended changes.
It also came the same day that a House committee considered a couple of sweeping property tax bills. One of them, House Bill 186, would grant an estimated $1.7 billion property tax cut over the next three years by capping property tax increases at the rate of inflation. Huffman said HB186 might get a full floor vote next week. School district officials testified in a committee hearing on Wednesday the proposal would force teacher layoffs.
Asked about HB186 on Wednesday, DeWine said he hadn’t yet studied the bill
But as for the veto override vote, DeWine said: “The legislature does what they do. I think the biggest question is, ‘What’s the ultimate package that has to come together?’ And I think this working group has come up with some good ideas.”
After years in retreat, GOP anti-abortion politics resurface at Ohio Statehouse
First, there was a bill to “entirely abolish abortion” in Ohio earlier this summer.
Then, in the last week, there have been proposals from Republicans to require women to undergo a 24-hour waiting period before receiving an abortion; to block Medicaid funds from passing through to Planned Parenthood (which provides abortions and other reproductive care); and a “Baby Olivia” bill to add Ohio to a list of states that require schools to annually show students a three-minute video about fetal development produced by an anti-abortion advocacy group.
“The dehumanization of the unborn child must stop,” said Kate Makra, president of the Right to Life Action Coalition, speaking to Statehouse reporters, standing next to the Baby Olivia bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Melanie Miller, who also runs a crisis pregnancy center.
This all comes less than two years after 57% of Ohio voters amended the state constitution in 2023 to broadly guarantee abortion and other reproductive rights.
The spate of anti-abortion activity following a quiet period in the aftermath of the 2023 vote had us wondering whether this is all just political messaging in advance of the annual March for Life at the Statehouse on Friday? Or is it a revived policy focus for Republicans?
GOP House Speaker Matt Huffman said Wednesday he has no “expectations” about what legislation will pass the House this year, but he said his “pro-life” caucus will “consider” any relevant ideas. He made no promises, but said, unprompted, that he believes a 24-hour waiting period wouldn’t violate the new constitutional rules.
Rep. Dani Isaacsohn, who leads the house Democrats, said whether it’s a real policy push or just bluster, Republicans are once again disrespecting the will of the voters.
“The legislature, the [Republican majority] at least, seems to be sticking their fingers in their ears and their hands over their eyes and saying, ‘We don’t hear it, we don’t see it, we want to do our extreme agenda, regardless of what the people of Ohio clearly said they wanted,’” Isaacsohn said.
Read more about the (maybe) trend from Jake Zuckerman here.
ICYMI
A Monday report from Jake and Andrew detailed how one small-town Ohio hospital has dramatically stepped up its efforts to use the courts to lean on former patients to pay their bills.
Mary Rutan Hospital in Bellefontaine has filed 2,700 lawsuits over the past two years in a county of 46,000 people and now accounts for two of every three civil cases filed in local municipal court.
We talked to contractors, cosmetologists, custodians and factory workers about what it’s like to be sued, garnished, or even driven to bankruptcy by the local hospital.
Waiting for a congressional map
An initial legal deadline passed on Tuesday with no meaningful public moves from Republicans, who control the process in redrawing the state’s congressional district lines.
The development means a panel of elected officials called the Ohio Redistricting Commission, not the state legislature, will get a month to potentially draw and approve a new map.
Democrats want DeWine to call a commission meeting sometime in the next week. But DeWine was noncommittal on Wednesday on whether that might happen.
“I don’t know,” DeWine said. “I’ll talk to the two Republican [legislative] leaders. We gotta meet. So.”
As Andrew reported this week, all signs continue to point toward Republicans simply waiting until November, when the state’s redistricting rules will allow them to pass a map without any Democratic support.
Reading the tea leaves
Tim Ryan previously had said he’d decide by the end of September whether he’ll run for governor next year. Well, it’s October now, and he still hasn’t decided.
Ryan spokesperson Dennis Willard said Tuesday that Ryan still believes he’s the strongest Democratic candidate to defeat Republican billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy next year. But he said Ryan needs “another few days” to make up his mind.
Ryan has definitely come a long way from the revelation that he was “open to running” shortly after the November 2024 election. But it’s unclear whether his new statement, in which he says he’s “excited about what he could do as governor” points more toward “yes” than where he was in August, when his spokesperson described how Sherrod Brown’s decision to run for the U.S. Senate “renewed and heightened” Ryan’s interest in the governor’s race.
Ryan, a former congressman, may or may not end up joining a Democratic field that also includes former state health department director Dr. Amy Acton.
In the news from the Signal Statewide team
Aggressive medical debt collection practices target of bipartisan Ohio bill
What Ohioans can do if they face a medical debt lawsuit
Ohio releases app to help drivers-in-training log supervised time behind the wheel
Company asks to open fracking for oil and gas on 1,460 acres of Ohio protected wildlife