TOLEDO, Ohio — There are currently over a dozen bills at the statehouse trying to bring Ohioans some property tax relief.
House Bill 344, which aims to eliminate replacement levies, is expected to be voted on this week. But it's being met with some pushback.
"Replacements levies, they actually reset and refresh some of the existing levies, so if you get rid of replacement levies, you will not have that feature," said state Rep. Elgin Rogers Jr. (D-Toledo).
Republican lawmakers Adam Mathews (R-Lebanon) and Thomas Hall (R-Madison Twp.), who are sponsoring HB 344, say otherwise.
Their goal is to provide tax levy transparency, the primary basis for the bill.
"When you're being transparent, you get the trust of the voters," Mathews said.
A property tax levy appears at the polls quite often, and voters typically see several kinds.
There are three major types of these levies listed by the Ohio Department of Taxation: renewal levies that reinstate existing ones, renewal levies that reinstate existing ones with proposed increases or decreases, and replacement levies that recalculate property taxes owed based on the latest home valuation.
"That's something that everyone votes on," said Sandusky County Auditor Jerri Miller. "I have one vote just like everyone else does. The problem is that when they go to the polls, it's just very complicated."
Mathews says eliminating replacement levies will give more control to the people.
"It's up to our voters to have that type of control and by having this transparency here and going forward, we will have a better handle on our property taxes," Mathews said.
But Rogers says keeping replacement levies would be better for taxpayers.
He believes House Republicans are not being transparent in their claims of transparency.
"What they aren't sharing with you about HB 344 is that if it passes through, new levies, citizens will lose their discount, their 2.5% and a 10% rollback that the government pays in part for their property taxes," Rogers said.