Hamilton County voters are picking a new commissioner on November 3.
On Cincinnati Edition we talk with Republican candidate Jonathan Pearson and Democratic candidate Meeka Owens about the issues in this race and their priorities if elected.
This race also has a write-in candidate, Independent Carrie Davis.
A transcript of the show is below.
In our interview with Jonathan Pearson he said Hamilton County has never honored the property tax rollback. That is not correct. Here are the figures provided by a Hamilton County spokesperson.
12/9/1996 — 30.0%
11/5/1997 — 30.0%
11/18/1998 — 30.0%
11/24/1999 — 30.0%
11/15/2000 — 30.0%
11/7/2001 — 30.0%
11/20/2002 — 30.0%
11/12/2003 — 30.0%
11/17/2004 — 30.0%
11/16/2005 — 30.0%
11/8/2006 — 30.0%
11/28/2007 — 30.0%
11/26/2008 — 30.0%
12/2/2009 — 30.0%
12/1/2010 — 7.8%
11/30/2011 — 30.0%
12/5/2012 — 15.3%
11/20/2013 — 19.0%
11/24/2014 — 18.3%
11/18/2015 — 18.0%
11/28/2016 — 29.8%
11/29/2017 — 22.1%
12/5/2018 — 10.1%
12/5/2019 — 10.1%
12/3/2020 — 6.0%
12/2/2021 — 29.7%
1/2/2022 — 10.5%
11/30/2023 — 12.4%
11/21/2024 — 30.0%
12/5/2025 — 4.5%
This conversation was prerecorded, so we can’t take calls. You can catch a replay at 8 p.m.
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This episode was transcribed using a combination of AI speech recognition and human editors and has been lightly edited for clarity. It may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
Jonathan Pearson
Hamilton County voters will choose a new county commissioner this election day. Jonathan Pearson is the Republican candidate in the race. He joins me in this recorded interview to discuss why he's running and the important issues facing the county. Thanks so much for being here. Why did you decide to run again for this office?
Pearson: You know, to be honest with you, I think if you look real quickly around the city in the county, things seem to be moving okay in a lot of things. But the one thing that everybody hits come January and July is they have to pay that property tax, and I don't care who you are or what you own, it's gotten staggering, and to the point that it's affecting rent just substantially because there's an actual additional amount of property, a percentage put on property tax for four units or bigger, and a lot of people don't even know that, but the landlords know that, and landlords aren't benevolent enough to not pass on that increase, and that increase from COVID forward has been anywhere from 10 to 25% rent has skyrocketed, so for those of us who have mortgages, our mortgage stayed the same, but our property tax jumped substantially. I live in Fairfax. I own a total of 5000 square foot property. That's my yard boundaries. I pay $5,600 for that. That seems a lot for 5000 square feet that I have to pay my annual tax of 5600. It's actually going to go up, so that's what my biggest motivation is: property tax and help people just make it affordable, have an extra dollar or two to maybe fix their house instead of paying taxes.
Lucy: Yeah. Well, you mentioned how many local homeowners have seen these big increases in their property tax bills. How would you propose to offer relief?
Pearson: Well, the first thing, if you if you look out in California, many many years ago, they did their Proposition Eight and Proposition 13, and what those really did out in California, ironically, because we always complain, people complain about their tax base is awful, and it is because they have so many taxes compared to Ohio, but the actual property is indexed to the price they paid. So my home, which we got a great deal because we were smart to buy when the downturn hit after '08, we paid 110 for. The city, the county says it's worth 290. So I have $180,000 of appreciated, unappreciated gain on my home that I'm being as a tax base increase upon my 110. That's a substantial amount of taxes without officially raising my taxes. The percentage of what they're basing on went up, so my taxes went up, but they didn't actually give me a new tax to put it on, and that's an unfair way to do this.
Lucy: Would be a state law that would have to change?
Pearson: It would have to be a state law, but you know, I'd have a bigger voice as a county commissioner. And the advantage of this comes in the fact that if I stay at the 110 I'm at, and if we can't get back that far, if we've been in our helms too far, my proposals go 12 years backwards. But if you want to increase the taxes in the area, you don't try to convince the auditor to reevaluate your home. You have to actually propose a new tax. Now we actually get the people involved going. Is it worth it? That's a big different question, and I think that's fair and an open, transparent way to do it, both Democrat, Republican, or Libertarian. But it allows us to actually see what's really going on in the tax base, as opposed to saying, "Well, it's just the way it is, and that's an unfair statement to the people who are just right now just trying to get by.
Lucy: Well, the rising property tax rates that so many homeowners are paying these days has really brought new attention to the levies property owners pay too. If you're elected, what criteria will you use to really evaluate and vote on tax levies that the commission is responsible for approving for the ballot.
Pearson: Well, II said this a while ago, and I you know minus it really is simple for evaluating taxes. Does the recipient actually need the money? Do we really need to double the park budget, which we did? Do we really need to have doubled the bus budget, which we did. They were actually meeting their budget prior to that, and we still doubled it. And we're spending an awful lot of money to look pretty, but did we need it? You know, maybe we could have said we could have done with less. But that's what you know. The first, do we need it? Does it add quality value to the Hamilton County? Does it come at a modest cost to limit the monetary hit to the residents, so we don't want to add more taxes. And is it redundant to other city, township, county, or state tax laws or levies that are already on the books? Because we never actually look at that. Sometimes we're so excited to do our own thing, we forget that there's money out here coming in from the state already covering that from our state taxes. And the other thing that we really need to look at is it the right time economically to throw this out there. So as a county commissioner, we can't affect what's going on in the city. We can't affect different resolutions, but we can affect countywide issues by saying no. That sounds like too much, or no, it shouldn't be on the ballot. So there's a lot of authority that the commissioners will have to push on some of that. But the real thing is just to convince the residency not to start to go out and look at saying, "Gee, what if we did this? We have great parks, we have great libraries. I want to. I'm not going to say we don't, but we spend so much money on these things that we forget. Do we need the extra money? And then people sit. My property taxes are too high. Now, in fairness, the people go out and vote for this and don't realize the repercussions what this means. And sometimes we, as commissioners, would need to stand up and say, "Hey, here's what this will actually mean to you. So we need to be out there and be also because the biggest thing that we are, as commissioners, are cheerleaders for the county and for the residents. We forget that part entirely. Their fiscal, you know, responsibility is to take care of the numbers that come through. But the reality is, we're cheerleaders for the county. There's three cheerleaders, and I think we should make our voice heard for being that cheerleader and that arbiter of understanding what's going on.
Lucy: What about the Hamilton County Children's Services levy that's on this year's ballot, do you support that?
Pearson: You know, the irony is that I am supportive of these levies that support these things. We had an incident years ago that we ended up taking care of our neighbors' two kids for about five months, and so I'm very aware of the needs that just out of the clear blue sky. Suddenly, you're like, so who's going to take care of the kids? That was literally the question asked me by the police because we reported an incident. I said, well, today we'll take them and we'll talk to the family because I knew the family, and we ended up with the kids staying with us for five months. So I understand those needs that arise, and we see this through all these things, you know. Just you know, you see with all the adoptions that go out. So many of these kids that are being adopted through that, the majority of them are actually taken from very bad situations. So there's a need for all these various services from all of that clear through that, you know. So yes, there is a need, and yes, I support these things. But at the same time, I think we need to really take a a true look at all these budgets, and if we are doing this, is it an effective amount, and is it actually being spent on proper things? You know, I don't mind that we fix up offices. You know, we're standing in your nice studios. You know, I don't mind that we. Take money to make stuff look nicer, but at the same time, did we really need to buy that 1000-dollar rug for this particular office and this particular administrator's thing? Those sound mundane, but when you start adding those numbers up over this one, this one, this one, this one, suddenly we go, oh, so maybe we don't need as much money in that particular levy. And these are again how we can really evaluate these things. It's it's tedious, but to be honest with you, that actually is the hallmark of the county commissioners-a ridiculously boring, absolutely necessary, tedious job of the county. That's how I always describe it to people. Is what the county commissioner's office really is.
Lucy: Yeah. Well, and just to be clear, there weren't county tax dollars spent on our studios. I think no, no, no. I appreciate that you did tell me that.
Pearson: So no, I was just making example because you have very pretty studios, and a lot of people want to have their office look just as pretty, which is nice. But we still need to limit how we spend that. We need to be more judicious in how we actually appreciate this money going into the use of what is being said for, so people aren't fooling thinking, oh, it's going for the kids. When in fact we build a brand new, pretty building, and only maybe a quarter of it goes to the kids.
Lucy: Yeah. Well, if voters reject the children's services levy, there are still costs that would have to be covered. Mandated services. Do you have any ideas about where that money should come from?
Pearson: Immediately, no, because I'd have to look at the budget and see where the surplus would be. Should you know that to to help you know juxtapose that thing, because just like a for our own private use at home, you know, if suddenly somebody ends up in the hospital and you're like, oh, I've got to pay that bill, and I wasn't counting on an extra $4,500 bill to the hospital, which none of us are, to be honest with you. Same thing. You're going to look at your budget and say, "What can I pull this from? And I'd have to see the budget directly. But honestly, I think the people of Hamilton County are responsible enough to want to care for their neighbor, and that's why a lot of these levies get passed. I'm just saying that as as a county commissioner, we need to actually help them understand this, so we can appreciate the levees to the extent they're needed, and not pass that. In this way, we're more transparent. And then, if we need actually more money, we have to come back with a different levy and say, "Hey, we actually need more. And then the residents go, "You know what? You were honest with the first one. I trust you with this one.
Lucy: Well, severe storms this summer resulted in a lot of flash flooding throughout the county that was made worse by surfaces like parking lots that don't absorb water. The Metropolitan Sewer District is considering a pilot program that would charge property owners for the runoff that they put into the sewer system. Would you vote to support that program?
Pearson: You know the the reality is that all development benefits everybody. If I have a new neighborhood that just increased my tax base by 18% then that community just got an 18% bump without any new taxes. That also means that Metro Sewers getting more money too, and so if these programs that they were supposed to separate the two systems were done quicker, that would benefit it. The challenge that we're facing is when we try to make sure that we meet certain micro quotas according to what person of this ethnicity, color, or gender does something, it slows up the process instead of saying this is the most meritorious person to do, or the most meritorious company to do the job or get us the part. And the other thing that we do have to look at is how we can keep this to to your question of charging that that money, which I don't necessarily agree with is that we need to also, as residents, quit this idea of don't dig in my yard. The places that flooded the worst were the places you think should be able to afford the problem the best, and yet they're the very ones that said I don't dig in my yard. Well, I think they might change your mind because splitting these systems is expensive, intrusive, and awful till it's done. And this is where I think that we need to help change mindsets more than anything. We can't account for a massive storm as the instantaneous harbinger of making more money, let's see if we can do our job more efficiently. And and I'll be honest, I think they've been slow about the process they're doing.
Lucy: What do you think the county's role should be in completing development at the banks or funding the decks over Fort Washington Way?
Pearson: Well, the city itself was the one that proposed the idea of doing the deck over that. That was years ago, and they built the walls to accommodate that. So good forward thinking, and I'm perfectly fine with the city doing that. I'm not necessarily for the county doing that. We need to meet. Other budgets that we've incurred, whether we agree with them or not, most notably through the stadiums and other the parks and stuff, which are separate things. But all those, just as you mentioned with the children's, there are budget monies that need to be accounted for for things first. When it's all said and done, and I include this in the rollback, the property rollback that we've promised since we built the stadiums and have never done. I have a problem with that. A huge problem with that. Don't promise something you're never going to do. That's insulting. So once all of that's cleared out of the way, what's the money left that we could help the city with? That that's a different question. That's where I stand on that for the decking. I'm not opposed to the idea because I think it would be it's an awful lot of land use that could be acquired.
Lucy: I've been talking with Jonathan Pearson, the Republican running for Hamilton County Commissioner. Thanks so much for your time today.
Meeka Owens
This is Cincinnati Edition on WVXU. I'm Lucy May. Voters in Hamilton County will choose a new county commissioner in November. Mika Owens is the Democratic candidate in the race. She currently serves as a member of Cincinnati City Council. Councilmember Owens joins me in this recorded interview to discuss why she's running and the big issues facing the county. Thanks for being here. So, why did you decide to run for this office?
Owens: Yeah, that's a great question. It's the number one question. And so, what I can say is because of the time that I've spent in the city of Cincinnati, what I feel working on meaningful issues that matter to families. Yes, issues of affordability. Yes, issues of housing, of climate. You know, building on infrastructure. These are things that are not absent of outside of the count, outside of Cincinnati as well. And so families are dealing with how they're paying their rent. Can we expand our eviction protection initiatives to help more families. Can we help invest in renewable energy? To as everyone is looking at the the cost of utilities right now, so our issues are very similar, no matter where you are in the county. And so for me, it's a matter of that growth and those that work being scaled forward, so that all 49 jurisdictions of Hamilton County can really grow and feel like a place that is affordable to families.
Lucy: So, what are the biggest concerns you're hearing from Hamilton County residents, and and how would you want to address those if you get elected?
Owens: Yeah, you know what we're hearing are the same things of yeah, my my property taxes, of course, there are some parts of you know that are dealing with over flooding in communities. Certainly, building more housing and finding affordable quality housing is important. Preserving those things, everyone thinks about safety, and certainly economic mobility and opportunity for families. Transportation is a huge part of that, and so I think when we bring regional coordination to these issues and attention, that only again I think helps to strengthen and grow who we are. But again, our issues are very very similar, no matter where you go.
Lucy: Yeah, you mentioned property taxes. A lot of local homeowners have seen these big increases in their property tax bills. How would you propose offering relief?
Owens: Yeah, certainly. You know, there's there's multiple things that that can be true, and one of which is making sure we continue to fund our school systems, no matter where you live in in Ohio or in Hamilton County, young people deserve a quality education, and so when we have this discussion of property taxes, we certainly need to make sure that we are not there are no unintended consequences to to young people's future, and so we must also recognize that yes, we can't continue to pass costs off to our taxpayers who are failing it, our seniors on fixed income, and so for me this becomes really an exercise of thoroughly examining examining what our budget looks like in the county. That becomes an exercise of looking at all of our levies for maximum a rigorous review for maximum transparency, accountability, sustainability, understanding where we might be able to reduce cost and produce more efficiencies, and look at our spending, and I think ultimately that's what people want: our outcomes. And so, if we are all you know sharing into the public good of something, supporting you know all of the things that we hold you know hold as values like public safety, like social services, like our green spaces and parks. Then I think we need to be very clear on on what we're getting when we're spending. But it certainly starts with working with our tax levy review committee, and I think making sure that all of the expertise that is needed on boards and commissions that the county is responsible for, people that want to do good work. That's a partnership, and so I want to make sure that we are not losing institutional knowledge, but we're bringing expertise into these conversations as well.
Lucy: Well, last year, Butler County commissioners approved two measures to reduce property taxes, including a piggyback of the state's homestead exemption, Hamilton County commissioners voted against that, saying that it would have had too many negative impacts, including on school districts. How would you have voted?
Owens: Yeah, I think we have to put everything on the table. Again, this can't be a conversation that's absent of our state partners as well, and I do think Ohio, we should be looking at the ways that we are funding education, and you know right now it's been deemed unconstitutional, and so we must go back and and understand what it means to pass costs to people that are living everyday lives, and so we have to look at. Ways that you know Governor DeWine's task force, and and you know there are things that we still have not even addressed in that. And so when we look at think about circuit breakers, definitely expanding the homestead exemption eligibility, the cost of everything is rising, and you know ultimately it is an unsustainable model if we don't want also address property taxes by building more housing, because it is also related to the valuation of of homes. And as you know, valuations increase, it is because of the market structure. There is more emphasis on the demand because the supply has not leveled out that demand, and so this is why you know our number one priority has got to be increasing production across the county. I also want to make sure that we are taking advantage of of things that do exist. So yes, homestead exemption. There's also the owner occupancy credit. These are things that people can apply through the Hamilton County Auditor. We certainly should make sure we are putting resources into furthering tax relief programs. But going back to people sitting on important boards, and so when people are maybe wanting to discuss the valuation of their home and maybe disagree. We need to make sure there's continuity in the people that are making those decisions. And so, this is some of the work that I certainly want to be a part of on the board of commissioners.
Lucy: Yeah. So, in terms of the vote that Hamilton County commissioners took last year, where they had to decide, okay, do we take advantage of these tools that the state gave us to lower people's property taxes. You know they had so many school district officials coming forward and say, if you do this, it'll really hurt us. And there was some discussion on the board. I believe Commissioner Denise Driehaus said we just can't do this. There should be changes at the state level to address this. This can't all be on the backs of of the county and the people who count on these property taxes, do you have a sense for how you would have voted on that if you were sitting in the chair at the time?
Owens: You know, timing is everything as well, and so these these are conversations prior to a levy discussion in terms of children's services prior to CPS making a decision about what's on the ballot, and so I think at the time it would have been a negative impact. But certainly, we've got to come back to the discussion because people have to be able to afford to live in communities.
Lucy: Well, these rising property taxes that so many homeowners have faced have brought new attention to the levies that property owners pay too. If elected, what criteria will you use to evaluate and vote on tax levies that the commission is responsible for approving for the ballot?
Owens: Yeah, I think a thorough thorough review is important. We also need to tie our levies to outcomes and prevention spending. We need to understand where we can yes save dollars, but also create ROI. And so we know that you know in the work that we're doing around eviction prevention, when we are helping people before they get evicted, before they go into court, that's saving money on social services, that saving money on you know someone going into a homeless shelter or missing work, you know these are things about economic mobility, and so we have to look at the ways in which again our spending is producing results.
Lucy: Do you support the Hamilton County Children's Services Levy that's on the ballot.
Owens: Yeah, I absolutely do, and here's why. Again, this is recognizing that two things can be true at the same time. Our most vulnerable people in our community are young people, and in the most vulnerable state of when you think about foster care and abuse and neglect, I mean, people see don't understand the ugly things that that happen in society, and we can't leave our children behind. We also have to recognize that yes, people are feeling the the pain of of paying property taxes, and so again, that's where that exercise has to matter. But these are when we when we spend and we see results and outcomes, it is also about making sure the same systems are working to support children's futures. And if we even go downstream more, I think it is also relative to the conversation of public safety. Everyone wants housing. We we addressing mental health, addressing behavioral health, all of these are possible when we're looking at our levy spending. But again, we've got to attach it to measurements and outcomes. But ultimately, yes, the children's services levy not only because of the the moral stance of taking care of our children, but we're also talking about mandated services. That the state does not reimburse communities for, and so going back to this conversation and our state partners as well, I think there needs to be somewhat of a paradigm shift in when we in what we think about as a mandated service versus what is an evidence-based practice that is producing good results, and so I use the example of like I think it's kinship care where if you put a young person with someone that a relative, it reduces recidivism, but it's not a mandated part of the services, and so we must think differently as well as we look at the children's services levy and any levy.
Lucy: Well, severe storms this summer resulted in a lot of flash flooding that was made worse by surfaces like parking lots that don't absorb water. The Metropolitan Sewer District is considering a pilot program to charge property owners for the runoff that they put into the system. Would you vote in support of that program?
Owens: Well, as leading on climate issues in the city of Cincinnati, everything has to be on the table as it relates to you know how we are experiencing life as a result of irregular weather patterns that result in things like flooding and overheating, and so the impervious surface program would would yes allow one revenue to be created on people that are using more storm stormwater runoff, which then is enables us to invest back into the infrastructure, and so this is one of those, I guess, principles of if you use more, you pay for more, or you invest in the things that help to mitigate the runoff. And so I think, at you know, most importantly, we are raising the consciousness of of people around this issue of climate and what that impact has on on infrastructure, which is extremely costly, and and so we need that reader chip in.
Lucy: Okay. Well, what else do you think the county could or should be doing to mitigate future flooding problems.
Owens: Well, I think there has to be an exercise of examining as we think about MSD, examining what does the future governance of this utility need to look like to get to more coordinated decisions and maximizing solutions. And so right now you've got a very fragmented problem. You know, a problem that's fragmented across multiple departments amongst two jurisdictions. Two, you know, that's the county and the the city. And so I think we have to take a look at that. I think that also leads into conversations that might think about how do we cost share in this as well, which commissioners have have decisions that they can make around those things, particularly to the city of Cincinnati. You'll probably see things. The mayor has a motion that will be on an agenda coming up that you know, stormwater utility, stormwater management would be its own department. I think these are the practical things that we can do as a city to start being a little more laser focused on everyone's part in the overall utility. But certainly, this is a place where you know the county and the city must continue to align, and so I think I bring a really great experience and perspective in being able to do that. You know, plus again, this is a climate and economic issue, and we have to look at it as such, which is why investing in renewable energy is important. Which is why thinking about green infrastructure and building more resilient infrastructure is important, and we have to look at that across all of the things that the county would do: economic development, building housing. Yeah.
Lucy: Okay. Well, what should the county's role be in completing development at the banks or funding the decks over Fort Washington Way?
Owens: Well, we're all going to have to find some money to finish that project. So certainly that is a part of the exercise, but again it goes to good decision making, and so the city and the county coming into agreement on what that looks like for the future of of the the redevelopment, because certainly the experience that people have now it will be a starkly different experience when we think about that as a mixed-use space, retail, commercial, residential, and so we're going to have to line on what that looks like. I mean, down to the the placemaking strategy, and so that means we have to be at the table, and we have to we have to work together, and we have to, you know, the direction of having a master developer. I think will help set the tone on what some of these decisions will need to be.
Lucy: I have been talking with Cincinnati City Council member Mika Owens, the Democrat running for Hamilton County Commissioner. Thank you so much for your time today.