The Democratic candidate for governor has released some details about her plans for property tax relief. It’s the first tax-related specifics that Amy Acton has released since April, and it includes rebates and exemptions targeted toward specific groups of homeowners.
Acton’s plan would raise the household income limit on the homestead tax exemption—which goes to older and disabled adults—to $50,000, which would expand it to 55,000 more homeowners. The current income limit is $41,000. She’d also create something like a "circuit breaker" to offer rebates of up to $1,000 for those with household incomes under $132,000 and homes valued at or below $350,000 when their tax bill rises by more than 4% a year. Her plan also limits private tax-lien sales and loans with 18% interest or higher.
Acton's proposal also calls for fully implementing the Fair School Funding Plan to increase state money to schools and reduce reliance on local property taxes. That last item is easily the highest-ticket item in her proposal. The progressive leaning think tank Policy Matters Ohio estimated lawmakers underfunded schools by over $2.75 billion in the current budget by not fully implementing the plan.
Acton's Republican opponent Vivek Ramaswamy has talked for months about rolling back property taxes to pre-pandemic levels, but hasn’t put out many specifics of what that would look like for homeowners and how it would be paid for.
