The Republican-dominated Ohio House has passed a pair of bills that would deliver a major property tax cut adding up to as much as $2 billion over the next three years.
But not all Ohioans would get a reduction on their taxes. It depends on where you live. The tax breaks could come at the expense of school district’s balance sheet, critics worry, though the bills earned bipartisan support. The bills are now headed to the Ohio Senate for possible approval before landing on Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk.
The searchable map below shows which communities are expected to benefit from the new tax rules, if they do make it into law, and by how much.
The map expresses the size of the tax cut based on $100,000 of home value. For example, if the tax cut is $100, the owner of a $200,000 house would see $200 drop in their property taxes in 2026 compared to what they would they would have paid otherwise. The numbers are estimates compiled by the Legislative Service Commission, the legislature’s nonpartisan research arm.
Note: An earlier version of this graphic, due to data analysis errors, contained inaccuracies. It has been corrected.
House approves bills in bipartisan vote
House Bill 186 will make sure that in the future, property tax increases that occur solely due to rising property values won’t exceed the rate of inflation. If a particular school district sees its revenues rise more than inflation, property owners in the district would get a corresponding discount on their next tax bill to make up the difference.
HB 186 also works backwards. It would cut future taxes for property owners in school districts where tax collections have risen faster than inflation since 2022. These property owners would get a similar discount on their tax bill in the second half of next year.
House Bill 335, meanwhile, would apply a similar inflation cap to a different portion of tax revenue that both local governments and schools collect.
The House approved both bills on Wednesday with significant bipartisan support, although a majority of Democrats voted “no.”
The bills are written to only target certain communities, though. The discount property owners would receive also varies based on how much property values have risen in each school district.
The bills’ Republican sponsors say they’re meant to deliver tax relief to communities that need it the most.
Again, the bills still need approval from the Senate before heading to Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature. The governor could decide to veto the measures, as he did over the summer with another measure that would have diverted billions of dollars from schools.
Impact varies by community
For communities that qualify, the average amount of the tax cut works out to $66.82 per $100,000 of property value, according to a Signal analysis of estimates compiled by the Legislative Service Commission. The Hamilton Local School District in Franklin County would receive the largest tax cut, about $209.53 per $100,000 in home value.
Property owners in 63 of Ohio’s 611 school districts would receive no tax cut. These include 19 of Cuyahoga County’s 32 school districts, including the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Another nine Cuyahoga County school districts would get an estimated cut of less than $10 per $100,000 in property value.
Another seven school districts, including Akron City Schools, in Summit County will see no tax cut, while another 10 will.
Even though the tax cuts will be relatively modest — at most a few hundred dollars for many Ohioans — Republicans said they think homeowners will notice them.
House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, said taxpayers are closely attuned to how much of their money they give to the government year by year.
“I do think people, especially if it’s going to be on their bill, they’re going to see, ‘I’m paying $318 less. They actually did something,'” Huffman said.
Why doesn’t the bill apply everywhere?
The bills’ tax cuts target property owners in school districts where, generally speaking, voters in these communities have approved fewer tax levies. Property owners in these communities have seen the steepest state tax increases in recent years.
That’s because the state tax formula provides less protection from rising property values in districts where the tax rate is considered “low” – or at what is known as the 20-mill floor, the minimum property tax rate for schools. While the formula is meant to ensure schools get the funding they need, it has led to large spikes in tax bills when property values rise sharply in these communities.
By contrast, districts in urban or larger suburban areas, where voters have approved higher local tax rates, tend to be above the 20-mill floor. Homeowners there aren’t eligible for these cuts. The bill’s sponsors say that’s because these communities haven’t born the worst of the recent sharp tax increases.