Property tax relief occupied a lot of energy at the state House in 2025.

But is it too late to appease those who want to abolish property taxes?

A Republican backed law took aim at diversity, equity and inclusion programs on college campuses, and lawmakers took on energy generation as the state's power grid is strained by data centers and rising demand.

Ideas are.

Look back at the biggest state House stories of 2025.

Is next.

Hello and welcome to ideas I'm Mike McIntyre.

Happy new year.

Today we're looking back at the biggest stories of 2025 from the Ohio State House.

We recorded this show in December.

So if big news broke over the holidays, we won't have it in this retrospective.

Ohioans are fed up with their rising property taxes, and lawmakers scramble to pass reforms aimed at saving the money.

But an effort to repeal property taxes with a ballot measure grinds on.

Senate Bill one, which targets diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on college campuses, among other things, has forced big changes already.

The Ohio Redistricting Commission passed a new congressional map with support of Democrats, who said they worried a map passed by the full legislature would have been even more Republican dominated.

And a new energy bill passed last year attempts to solve the state's growing power crisis as demand puts strain on the grid.

Joining me to discuss those and other big statewide stories from the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse news bureau in Columbus, reporters Joe Ingles and Sara Donaldson.

And in studio with me, Bureau chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to round table.

When we look back at the round table topics from last year, it was abundantly clear that one was the priority.

Property taxes.

Legislators responded to taxpayer aggravation with a number of bills meant to lighten the burden.

But a grassroots effort to eliminate property taxes persists.

Karen, there's been a lot of recommendations and proposals in Columbus as we turn the page of the new year, what actual property tax changes have been approved?

I think that's really a big part of the story, is we started out the year with a report from the joint committee that was set up in the previous General Assembly.

Then we had governor Mike DeWine when he vetoed for property tax related items in the budget.

He set up a task force.

So we ended up with a whole bunch of recommendations, and very few of them actually moved forward, especially two that have come up in both of those, which are a circuit breaker, which would lower taxes based on you hit a certain level of income.

And then or percentage of your income, and then also, expansion of the homestead tax exemption.

Those two things have not passed, though they were recommendations.

What has passed are things that, Republicans have talked about being just huge modernization of the property tax system.

And they have other bills.

There's like 50 bills that could address property tax related law in some way.

But Democrats have pointed out that they really don't do much in terms of actually lowering the number that you're seeing when you go to pay your property taxes.

So I think that not only was that a big story in 2025, it'll be a big and even bigger story in 2026.

So the property taxes are something that the taxpayers are fed up with.

However, they fund a whole lot of things.

Everything that you think of at the local level.

And that's part of why this effort that you referenced about abolishing the property taxes, which would if this all volunteer group gets it signatures together and gets to the ballot next in November of 2026, that is when you've got local governments looking at that is potentially chaotic because no other state has done this.

You've got everything from schools to police, fire, libraries, zoos, children's services, all these things that are funded by property taxes.

At the local level, $16.7 billion in property taxes were collected statewide in 2024.

That's a lot of money to try to replace with a sales tax or something else.

One of the measures, Sarah, involves what local schools and governments can ask residents to approve at the ballot.

In terms of a levy, there's a ton of different ways levies can be approved.

So does this streamline it?

Is that what the argument is?

That's the argument that Republicans have at the state House have made, because, you know, you have a camp of Republicans who say, well, you know, we're at the state level.

We don't really control whether a subdivision goes in front of its voters and asks if they want to raise their property taxes, but they say that the system is confusing.

You know, subdivisions and schools can levy taxes in more than one way, at a fixed rate, at a fixed sum for debt service.

So one thing that lawmakers really wanted to get rid of are replacement levies.

So their replacement levies and renewal levies.

The difference between them is whether you're being taxed at the value of your property when that levy was first issued.

Replacement levies have some hidden increases, Republican lawmakers say, because they're taxing you based on the most recent value of your property.

So that replacement levies, renewals, our substitute, emergency levies, those are things that are not necessarily new renewals, but replacement and subsidy substitute emergency levies.

Those would be off the table.

What would be off the table would be all property taxes.

If the grassroots group trying to make that happen succeeds.

Let's talk about their effort.

Now for a moment, Sarah, that's something that the lawmakers, even the ones that are passing all of these reforms, are, it seems, deathly afraid of.

Yeah, I definitely think they're afraid of it.

Especially because when you look down the pipeline, you know, governor Mike DeWine has one year left.

There's going to be a new governor in town.

If it's Vivek Ramaswamy.

He's talked extensively about wanting to eliminate the income tax.

But, you know, property taxes, like you've said already, fund so many different local, services.

And so I think it would create a real crisis in local budgets.

And of course, you know, the state kicks money back to locals, but there's been a lot of complaints that they're not kicking enough money back to local.

So I think it's a real conundrum for lawmakers.

You know, I asked Republican Speaker Matt Huffman if he would, you know, kind of campaign against this if it actually makes the ballot, which, of course, there are some questions if it will get that far, because it's really hard to make the ballot.

But I think you're going to see a pretty large cohort of lawmakers, local officials, police departments, teachers, all of these people are going to be against eliminating property taxes.

And, Joe, if that does make it, if they gather the signatures that are necessary for it, does it then become a central point and the governor's race or or do both candidates kind of both oppose it?

As it's being presented?

Well, I would say it's already a central point in the governor's race, regardless of what happens to that.

But yes, if that makes it to the ballot, it's going to be big.

I think there's going to be a lot of discussion now about what happens.

How do you replace that revenue?

It's a lot of revenue, right.

And Karen, we've seen over the years where the community of Ohioans has gone to the ballot and done something opposite of what the legislature would want to do.

It happened with abortion rights.

It happened with, marijuana legalization.

So there's you're right.

And then so so maybe there's no reason to think that this wouldn't happen, even though all of these officials don't want it to.

Well, I have to say that an all volunteer effort with no paid signature gatherers getting 443,000 valid signatures, which is actually it's 442,958 valid signatures.

Exactly.

Yeah, exactly.

You'd have to gather much more than that to get to that level by the beginning of July is a tall order.

It's really, really difficult.

And so I think that's the first hurdle that this group has to pass.

They say that they're going forward no matter what the legislature does in terms of property tax relief or changing laws or whatever, they are committed to going through this, I think a lot of them feel that they haven't been heard by lawmakers and they're really, really frustrated, and that's why they want to see this go forward.

But I just don't know if it has what is needed to get to the ballot.

And then if it got to the ballot, we're already seeing lawmakers talking about how this would be devastating to services that you count on at the local level.

I mean, it would be an unprecedented pushback against it and local officials.

Oh, absolutely.

You'd have officials at every level in fact, late in 2025, I moderated a discussion before the county Commissioners Association with the folks from the abolishment effort.

County commissioners in Ohio are 90% Republican, and they're very concerned and largely opposed to this because of how important property taxes are to funding local services.

Sarah mentioned that Vivek Ramaswamy was talking about wanting to get rid of the income tax.

If you got rid of the income tax and you got rid of the property tax, does anyone have an idea about how you would fund these things?

Well, I essentially be paving my own roads and putting out my own fires.

Well, and that's been, I think, the question of how do you replace that?

I mean, I've seen estimates of a statewide sales tax going into the high teens, you know, which would be devastating to communities that are on the border.

Cleveland, Cincinnati, you know, where people could easily go to another state to buy the things that they need?

Maybe not Cleveland, but, you know, oh, you can swim for a few miles.

Well, go to another country.

I think, you know, then you start talking too, about raising fees and raising all these other things.

If you think that lowering or eliminating property taxes will lower all your costs and you won't have to pay that, well, then that means you won't have those local services.

Those local services cost money and they would have that money would have to be gathered somehow.

And a sales tax is the most regressive tax there is.

It hits lower income people harder than any other tax that is out there.

So it's it's a real discussion.

So were you trying to jump in there too?

Oh my gosh.

Yes.

But all I was going to say is in addition to the sales tax, locals can levy income taxes.

And you've seen on some schools like Westerville and Columbus, you know, try that approach.

It would be interesting to see if local income taxes, I mean, again, obviously the devil would be in the details with eliminating the statewide income tax, but that's another revenue, a place to gather revenue for locals.

And Senate Bill one, a higher education overhaul that targets what supporters call liberal bias on college campuses, went into effect and targets most diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and bans faculty strikes, among other measures.

Sarah, there had been a grassroots effort there to to overturn SB one, but that fizzled out.

Why?

Yeah.

So, unionized faculty at Youngstown State University, all volunteers were gathering signatures for a repeal effort, but it was a really quick turnaround.

And ultimately they just said they weren't going to be able to get enough signatures to get it on the ballot, because if they got it on the ballot, then the law would have paused.

But, you know, it had a 90 day turnaround around between when the bill was signed and when it went into effect, and they just weren't able to get the signatures they needed.

And it did get signed, Joe, by, governor DeWine, there was a big push to urge him to veto it.

He he didn't have ears for that.

Yeah.

Opponents of the bill had urged the governor to veto it.

They said it was going to cause all kinds of problems in, every aspect.

Not just the things that are taught in the classroom, but, you know, things like sororities, fraternities, clubs, things on campus.

And that it would actually hurt a lot of students who need a lot of services.

Because, it would take those services away.

And the other thing is that we got to remember the language in that is, vague.

So there's a lot of interpretation going on there.

And that's another problem.

I know, Karen, that a lot of campuses and we've done reporting on this have gotten rid of organizations, LGBTQ organizations and others that catered to certain groups, essentially to get away from this dei, label.

But do we have any evidence of the kinds of disaster that people said would befall colleges as a result of this coming into effect in June?

Well, it's only been in effect for six months.

So I think the long term effect is what we have to look at.

But, there were those who were opposed to it who have pointed out that there's been almost a over compliance by some colleges and universities and they specifically singled out Ohio State as the big one.

Ohio State shot its Dei diversity equity inclusion office even before Senate Bill one took effect.

They closed that in February.

They've banned things like chalking, drawing, you know, putting messages in chalk on campus that was not technically related to Senate Bill one.

But people have questioned whether those messages could have been part in trying to stop.

Some of those messages could have been part of that.

RA can now only decorate common spaces with Ohio State spirit themes.

So, you know, these are the kind of things that we're starting to see in campuses around the state.

But whether it actually does result in lower, enrollments, we have seen a little bit of a fall off at Ohio State.

But what could that be that could be related to a lot of things have to it's time.

Will tell.

I saw a report recently where nationwide Ohio ranked something like eighth for number of it wasn't nationally applications, but people that were looking for colleges, in the various states.

And so it said, okay, that the interest was high.

It was like in the top ten.

So it didn't seem to be this chilling effect on people being interested in going to colleges, state colleges in Ohio.

And I think that's the kind of thing that we have to look at.

But we also have to look at things like cost and things like that that would potentially keep people from seeking other educational opportunities rather than college.

What about curriculum?

How has that been affected?

I know that there have been some programs that have been shut down.

I mean, the University of Toledo, for example, cut nine undergraduate majors from Africana studies to philosophy.

So those programs, that's part of Senate Bill one, not only because of the whole intellectual diversity idea, but also it allowed some colleges and universities to cut programs that they felt were not giving students the best opportunity to go out and get a job.

And so this is this is a sweeping piece of legislation that I think we're going to be seeing the effects of for quite some time.

Legal marijuana will be more tightly regulated and intoxicating.

Hemp, like the kind sold in corner stores and gas stations, will be banned after the legislature late in 2025.

Address those issues took a lot of stops and starts by lawmakers.

They've been talking about this for two years.

They finally did enact some regulations.

What did they finally agree upon?

And send to the governor?

Yeah.

So on the hemp piece we're talking about, you know, delta eight THC, hemp derived beverages, all of that, that you, like you said, is sold unregulated in a lot of different stores.

Hemp will be under a 90 day.

It will be banned within 90 days of the governor's signature.

Those beverages get a little more leeway.

Theirs is more in line with the federal ban that Congress, passed in the last month or so.

As for marijuana, one of the big pieces here is there's been this pot of money that's just been kind of piling up, for local communities that have dispensaries.

So when issue two was passed, that's the voter initiated statute.

36% of the tax revenue was meant to go to local communities.

That said, sure, a dispensary can come to town.

Lawmakers kind of held on to that piece as a bargaining piece.

Now, $80 million worth of tax revenue over the next two fiscal years will be distributed through that host community cannabis fund.

Democrats in both chambers took issue with a final version of this bill re criminalizing marijuana possession in certain instances.

So it's, you know, now, a state crime for edibles to be stored outside of their original packaging.

If you're transporting marijuana, legally bought marijuana, it has to be in the original packaging.

And there's a lot of jokes about that state up north, and it's marijuana.

But it is now not only a federal crime to buy marijuana in Michigan and transported across state lines, it's also a state crime.

Joe, Ohio marked its full first full year this year, actually in 2025 of recreational marijuana sales.

So how did it go?

Well, it but there's nothing to compare it to because it's the first full year.

But, you know, there the, if you look at the sales, there were more than $702 million.

That's new revenue that's coming into the state because it wasn't there before they sold 109,706 pounds of marijuana from August 2024 to August 2025.

All that new revenue, I think state leaders would say, is great.

How does it compare to other states or that remains to be seen.

Yeah, but if you started a product and said, I'll sell $700 million worth of, I guess I'll sell 109,706 pounds from August of 2024 to August of 2025.

I'd say, let's start that product.

And Joe's point though, there about how we don't have anything to compare it to other than, you know, illegal sales and who was tracking all that.

But, I think it's significant that lawmakers have made the effort to move that money, some of that money back to local communities, because they said that they have been they were host communities for dispensaries.

They've been waiting on that money.

And so I think, you know, it's been sitting there since, sales started.

So that's that's a big deal.

A big part of this.

And, Karen, that $700 million comes even though the state doesn't really push its marijuana, product.

You don't see that?

Quite the opposite in fact.

You know, we talk about our neighbor to the north and everyone says, hey, you should you should go there.

But here, you can't even put it on a billboard now.

Right.

And they actually tried to stop people from bringing marijuana into Ohio from other states.

Lawmakers have been pretty clear.

Republican lawmakers in particular, have been pretty clear that they do not, like the legalization of marijuana.

They were opposed to the issue that legalized it in 2023.

So it's not a huge surprise.

In fact, if you recall, the rollout of the medical marijuana program, it was very slow and very deliberate because there was a concern about kids and that kind of stuff.

And so this has been kind of done, in spite of what most Republican lawmakers have wanted to see happen, with the exception of Jamie Calendar for Northeast Ohio, who's been an advocate for safe and legal marijuana and making sure that there regulations in place and that there's revenue being generated, it's pretty clear that this is something that was derived from the populace and not from the legislature.

Right.

And like you said earlier, that's the kind of thing that we've seen that, voters have said, we want this, and lawmakers aren't listening.

And so they've joined up with, groups that have gone to the ballot to make it happen.

The Ohio Redistricting Commission redrew the state's congressional district maps in 2025, giving Republicans an edge in 12 of Ohio's 15 districts.

Democrats voted for it because they feared an even more Republican leaning map would come if they didn't.

Karen, where does this map that'll be used in this year's midterms give Republicans an edge?

Where currently a Democrat holds the seat?

We actually heard from Senate Minority Leader Nikki Antonio and House Minority Leader Danny Isaacson that they had seen a map that was going to be worse.

And so they felt that this was the map they had to agree to.

And what this map does is it tips the district that Marcy Kaptur now represents in the Toledo area, and Greg Landsman in the Cincinnati area toward Republicans.

But it also tips the Akron area district, now represented by Amelia Sykes, toward Democrats, more and more toward.

Yes, exactly.

So you end up with I think Democrats are hoping for that.

The best scenario for them at this point would be, the status quo, ten Republicans and five Democrats.

And they're hoping that the midterms, where Democrats are expected to do well, will allow them to hold that, this map stays in place into 2032.

And so we'll just have to see what happens.

There have been no lawsuits over this yet.

I say yet because there's always that possibility.

But for right now, this is what Democrats felt like was the best deal they could get.

And Republicans say they they this is what they feel is fair.

And, you know, there was a lot of criticism over the lack of transparency for this.

There wasn't a lot of public input.

Yeah.

And that was the big thing, Mike.

It was the process that really got people going because they felt like a lot of the Democrats and and, and people who opposed the map felt like they didn't really get to weigh in on it.

The map was introduced two days before they passed it.

There weren't the opportunities for public hearings on it.

And, you know, they they really felt like everything was done behind closed doors without their input.

And they felt like that was against the spirit of the Constitution.

Can Ohio produce enough power to keep up with demands from both consumers and data centers?

That was a big issue in 2025, as the governor signed House Bill 15 in May, addressing power generation and grid reliability.

Sara, this bill went through a lot of changes.

In the end, it had near unanimous backing from both parties.

An extensive bill, a part of it, addresses vestiges of the scandal plagued HB six.

How does it do that?

Yeah, so there were two direct subsidies that Ohio Valley Electric Cooperative, was getting for two of its coal fired power plants, one of which was in Indiana.

It also eliminates direct subsidies to some solar farms, lawmakers said they just feel that they shouldn't be like subsidizing individual industries.

Another interesting piece of this legislation that I want to add is it, expands what's called behind the meter generation.

So I think that this is something we're going to be looking forward I which I know this is retrospective, but in 2026 when we've got and in future years, we've got data centers saying they want to come here.

This bill allows data centers to set up their own energy generation that goes right to them.

Instead of connecting to the grid.

All eyes will be on the governor's race in 2026, and the battle for a U.S.

Senate seat that will likely break fundraising records again.

Karen, we have the Trump endorsed candidate for the Republican side.

And Vivek Ramaswamy, we have the former, health, commissioner director, Amy Acton.

What's that battle going to be like?

Well, that's interesting.

You say it.

Trump endorsed, but not at this moment.

DeWine endorsed, endorsed by a lot of other Republicans, but not DeWine in Ohio.

Well, that's a good question.

And I think that's that's one of the the and that's this is an interesting race for him because he has said he fully expects to endorse the Republican candidate for governor, but his former health director is the Democratic candidate for governor.

So I think that this is going to be a very interesting race.

The fact that, Tim Ryan, the former Democratic, the Democratic former congressman, has stepped out of that race, possibly, and that Jim Tressel, who was lieutenant governor, who I have to say, looking back on last year, 2025, that was one of the biggest stories when it happened that Jim Jim Tressel, the former Ohio State football coach, becomes our lieutenant governor.

He decided not to run.

That sets up this really interesting battle of two outsiders who both want to be the chief executive of Ohio.

And Dave Yost was pushed out.

And Dave Yost, the attorney general, was pushed out when in previous Republican years, they would have looked at him as being the heir apparent, somebody who wanted to run for governor for a long time.

And he's not on the ticket.

Last thing.

And that is the the Senate race.

Sherrod Brown, the Democrat former, senator, he's jumped back into the race.

He's going to run against the appointed John Husted, former lieutenant governor.

That's going to be an expensive race.

Yes, it is.

And I think for a lot of people, they thought maybe it would be switched, that maybe it would be the vacant would be running for Ramaswamy running for Senate and John Husted running for governor.

That's not what happened.

And so you have, Sherrod Brown having been defeated in 2024 by Bernie Marino, now jumping back in trying to regain a position in the, in the Senate, it's going to be a very expensive race and high profile because of those two candidates who are there.

What is going to be on your radar coming up in the next year?

Start with you, Karen.

I think property taxes, I think taxation in general, but property taxes in particular, because of this abolishment effort, it's going to be a lot of discussion.

And lawmakers really need to make some decisions about voters who are very frustrated with what they're seeing in this property tax bills.

All right.

And, Joe, what are you looking for?

School funding?

I'll be looking at that.

Also the property tax piece of Karen's talking about I think that goes hand in hand.

Can't look at one without the other.

I'll also be watching bills in the legislature that would make it tougher to get abortions.

And looking at the candidates and how they, how they Ohio Democratic Party kind of, appeals to voters or tries to appeal to voters in this next year.

They've got a lot of rebuilding to do, and I'm anxious to see how that happens.

And, Sarah, what's on your radar?

Yeah, there's a bill that bans, quote unquote, foreign adversaries from buying property.

You know, there are a lot of folks, specifically Chinese immigrants, who say that it is targeting them directly.

So there's been a lot of debate over this.

It's a priority for Republicans to get passed in the new year.

So we'll see if they get it done.

On Monday, on the Sound of Ideas on 89 seven KSU if one of your goals for the new year is to stream less and read more, then fill up your book list with ideas from book lovers across the region.

Host Stephanie Haney will lead that discussion.

I'm Mike McIntyre, thank you so much for watching and stay safe.