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And from the Ohio education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools every child deserves.

More at OHEA.org Lawmakers leave themselves a lot of work for what they hope is their final week before a break.

and the deadline to submit more than 430,000 valid signatures for amendments for this fall's ballot is less than a month away.

We're checking in on the movement to abolish property taxes in Ohio this weekend.

The state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Castle.

Lawmakers have a busy week coming up with some big items on the agenda before leaving for summer break and their election campaigns.

Republican Speaker Matt Huffman talked about his priorities with reporters on Wednesday.

June 10th.

One is the capital budget, which I think has been introduced and largely agreed on by the House and the Senate and the administration still have to have hearings and votes.

Of course, we would like to act on some sort of data center legislation, and that's why we formed this joint committee.

I reports that we've had from our chair, Adam Holmes, is that there is it's a complex issue, but there are, I think, going to be in a position where they'll be able to produce some legislation.

Similarly, same comment can be made about the Medicaid plan.

We think The Senate passed the $3.7 billion capital budget this week.

Now the House has to pass it.

The House is also considering a medicaid anti-fraud bill aimed at home health care providers.

Following the report in the Daily Wire of alleged fraud with Ohio Medicaid that the state has yet to fully confirm.

That bill increases penalties for Medicaid fraud, strengthens the law on high risk providers, and requires new rules on electronic visit verification.

This week, a substitute bill was adopted that would also ban Medicaid payments to family members who are caregivers, prompting loud opposition from advocates for disabled Ohioans.

And then there's data centers, Huffman said.

Legislation is why the Joint Committee on Data Centers was formed, though the co-chairs said it was a fact finding mission.

This week, the committee heard from data center opponents, including the volunteers with Conserve Ohio, gathering signatures to put onto the ballot a ban on data centers that use more than 25MW of electricity a month.

The panel also heard from lobbyists with Amazon, Google, meta and Microsoft.

And there's also the Republican backed resolution to put before voters this fall a constitutional amendment on something that's already in state law, a requirement that voters show photo ID left leaning groups have criticized it, saying it's unneeded.

But advocates on the right have as well, saying it only requires photo ID for in-person voters and not for mail in voters.

That's not how Senate President Rob McCauley reads it.

require, actually the way the language reads.

The default is photo identification for mail in ballots, unless the legislature authorizes alternative methods such as the the unique identifier and signatures and things of that that nature.

And so it leaves the door open for these types of changes to happen.

It leaves the door open for for the legislature to make these changes.

I still think it's worth saying, and this is not just me talking.

This is the national experts who survey and monitor all 50 states election and integrity laws.

This will be, if not the strongest, one of these strongest election integrity voter identification, photo identification measures included in a state constitution that has passed the Senate.

It still needs to get 3/5 support in the House, and the vote could be close.

In two previous big election years, lawmakers have put state laws into proposed constitutional amendments.

2004 was a presidential year, and an amendment banning same sex marriage was on the ballot.

And in 2022, an amendment reiterating the state law banning non-citizens from voting was alongside races for governor and U.S.

Senator, two offices that are also up this year.

An amendment to abolish property taxes in Ohio will not be on the fall ballot.

The leader of the All volunteer Committee to Abolish Ohio Property Taxes, or Acts, Ohio Tax, said on Friday morning.

They don't have the 620,000 signatures they wanted and won't submit for this fall's ballot.

What will aim for November 2027?

But Brian Massie wouldn't say how many signatures they do have.

However many signatures they have received have been gathered by volunteers across the state.

Last weekend I visited one of those signing events.

It's a sunny Saturday morning in the parking lot of a shut down T.G.I.

Friday's restaurant of I-70 in Reynoldsburg.

Sue Mazarine is under a tent that threatens to blow away in the breeze.

Armed with pens and plenty of petitions for people to sign.

Trent Martin of Grove City in Franklin County.

Did I say because, you know, there's just no control at all over the property taxes?

You know, they just keep increasing, increase and increase since I bought my house ten years ago.

My property taxes have went up over $600 a month.

So, you know, there's just no control over, you know, how long it'll be.

You know, I'm retired, so there's no control over how long it'll be until I won't be able to afford to keep my house.

So did Kelly Nichols, who lives nearby in Fairfield County, a frustrated.

I mean, we just they just reassessed my property last year.

And then in Pickerington, they tried to raise another 1% sales tax to again fund the schools.

And, you know, that got voted down.

I think people are just they're tired of the property taxes constantly being used and misused by our by our school systems.

Some signers share stories and anecdotes about senior citizens on fixed incomes not being able to keep up with soaring property taxes.

That's one reason Candace Mitchell of Columbus signed.

I will say I am a little sad.

I wouldn't say mad.

I have neighbors that were a older couple.

The wife had purchased the house from her father.

It had been in their family pretty much her whole entire life.

She passed away.

The husband wasn't able to keep up with the property taxes and they took it.

The state took it.

So he was misplaced.

And it's just a really bad situation all around.

And it just hurt my heart to see that happen to them.

The all volunteer group started last year with no real organization.

Now there are 11 regions, each covering eight counties.

Sue Mazarine says she's done several pop ups, like this one on the Franklin Fairfield County line and gets about 80 people each time.

But the deadline to submit for this year's ballot is less than a month away.

It's really funny when some of them get out of their cars, air power walking over to us and you go, oh, you look like you're on a mission.

And they go, yes, we want to sign.

Where do we sign?

Where do we sign?

And it used to be when we first started this, you had to have more of a conversation.

What are we going to do to replace.

What are we going to do to this?

And now they are so frustrated at wit's end.

About $24 billion in property tax revenue was raised last year by levies approved by local voters for schools, first responders, libraries, children's services, agencies on mental health and aging, zoos and other local services.

But their suspicion of whether all that money is needed.

Derek Whiting is among those with questions.

The Columbus father of ten says he's worried about soaring rents and wants to know where all the money goes.

I really feel like they cheating us.

I'm gonna just be honest.

So it's so much more they got.

Like I said, we come on now.

If marijuana is legal, where that money going?

That's that's a lot of money.

Then they already cut all the school programs anyways.

Where's all of this money?

I mean, we can probably get in there and really look for it, but we ain't going to really find it.

Breakdowns of tax levy distribution are included in bills mailed to homeowners by county treasurer, and on most counties, websites that levy money doesn't include the $70 million collected in the first year of taxes on legalized marijuana, because state law directs it to communities with dispensaries and other specific funds.

The Ohio Lottery is also often singled out as a source of potential revenue.

Since all profits go to education.

It brought in $1.4 billion in profits last year, around 12% of the state's total K through 12 education spending.

Many signers say there's a better way than property taxes to raise the money for police, EMS, teachers and local services, but aren't sure what that is.

Others suggest hiking the state's sales tax, which officials have said would have to more than triple to around 20%, and that would hit lower income Ohioans especially hard.

State lawmakers have said they've passed reforms to lower tax bills and have more coming.

Donna Anderson has been holding signs directing traffic to the parking lot.

It's her first day on the job as a volunteer, and she says those who respond are trying to send a message to those lawmakers.

I think they haven't listened.

The legislators haven't listened to us so far.

And maybe if we get enough signatures, they'll finally take notice and really listen to the people.

People want this.

People are tired of the data centers.

They're tired of the property taxes.

And if we could get them to at least take notice and say, hey, there's a powerful group out here that are lobbying for this.

Maybe we can get them to lower taxes in some way.

I just hope it happens.

Well, lawmakers will tell you that they are doing it, that they've they haven't.

They're really not because I've been watching them.

They're they need to listen a little better though.

Property taxes are locally approved, collected and distributed.

Priorities in state spending often come up, such as the $600 million for the Cleveland Browns domed stadium in Brook Park.

The state budget actually directed that money to come from unclaimed funds, but a court battle is holding that up, and lawmakers may have to find that money another way.

Acts Ohio tax volunteers plan more signing events at businesses, outside big events, and even at people's homes.

Mazarin said 97 people signed petitions at this event, and she plans to be back in this parking lot on the next two Saturdays.

The campaign against an amendment to abolish property taxes would be expensive and massive.

A coalition calling itself Ohioans to Protect Public Services formed in April to fight the amendment should it happen, made up of more than 65 groups of local elected officials, libraries, businesses and trade groups, and unions representing first responders and teachers.

Among the groups in that coalition is the Ohio Mayors Alliance, the bipartisan group of mayors from the state's largest cities that worked together on issues they all deal with, such as public safety, tax policy and state government.

I talked to Findlay Mayor Christina Murphy, a Republican, and Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Preval, a Democrat, about what they think the elimination of property taxes would do in Ohio.

It would be catastrophic to the future of the state.

It would particularly hit townships and counties very, very, very hard.

And they would have to, you know, ten increase sales tax or other taxes like earnings tax, which is primarily governed by cities.

And so, you know, this seems to be a not well thought out strategy.

I share and empathize with.

Concerns around property taxes in my city were at risk of displacing people because they can no longer afford to live in a home that they own because of property taxes.

And we've been doing a lot of strategies to try and rush dollars to those, particularly senior citizens who are at risk and trying to build more housing by changing our zoning codes to legalize housing, to stabilize those housing costs.

But but doing away with property taxes would be catastrophic for our schools, for our economy, and for the future of the state.

Completely agree.

And I think another component is I really believe that our diversified tax structure in the state of Ohio is a competitive advantage, right?

Everybody needs to have skin in the game.

So if you are no longer have an income that you are earning and paying taxes on, having a level of property tax and sales tax is appropriate.

How do we make sure that we by shifting the burden onto sales and income tax, then you're displacing businesses.

You're encouraging people to go out of the state to buy.

So I think that the state needs to continue to work together to put in appropriate caps on the annual growth that you see in people that own their homes and are on fixed income.

So it's a very real affordability issue, but just simply getting rid of it would be catastrophic for our state.

And I think that it would really set us back.

So we need to come together and work on better solutions.

Murren and pure of all were in Columbus for the annual mayors and lawmakers luncheon with the Ohio Mayors Alliance.

The group says Ohio needs a statewide strategy that embraces cities.

I asked the mayors what they need from the state, You know, continued collaboration, continued investment in safety services, brownfield remediation.

We're seeing some great action by the DeWine administration.

I want to make sure that that continues on to the next administration, as we have a lot of really great momentum in our core communities across the state.

You may appear, of all, you have a slightly larger city than Findlay.

What do you think that the state could do for Cincinnati and the three largest cities in the state?

Well, I think they're doing a lot of it right now.

And the first thing to do is just articulate and understand that this is a problem.

This is a long term problem.

Both the state and the cities within the state are really laser focused on growing, growing our population, being a destination for domestic immigration and also international immigration, and also to make sure that we're continuing to to keep our birthrates up.

Unfortunately, the projections are showing that we're actually going to lose population over over a significant period of time into the future.

And so, you know, what the state leaders have recognized that is that this is a problem.

What we're suggesting is that despite other states like Illinois, Indiana, that only have one major metropolitan area, Ohio is really at a great structural advantage in that we have big cities and medium sized cities driving our economy, driving our growth all across the state.

And so what we're advocating for is a statewide strategy to invest where investment and growth is wanted, where we're set up from an infrastructure perspective.

And again, the state's doing this with brownfield remediation, but we really need a statewide effort partnering with the mayors to drive that growth.

Now, the vast majority of Ohioans do live in cities, but the state House is dominated by people who are not from major cities in major metro areas.

That has kind of continued this power struggle between leadership and cities, and which is largely democratic and leadership at the state House, which is largely Republican.

So I want to ask you, since you're the Republican here, how do you get around that power struggle?

How do you convince leaders that cities are worth investing in?

Yeah, well, I would say visit the cities, spend time with the mayors.

You know, I'm really fortunate that I've gotten to know mayors from across the state and experience different cities.

But I think the thing is that when one of us is succeeding, it's a benefit to everyone.

So an investment in Cincinnati, we celebrate that in Findlay, too.

And I think recognizing that the cities are our economic engines.

Right.

So going and having people, whether they live in the suburb outside of Cincinnati or, you know, there's people in rural communities across Midwest are northwest Ohio that work in the city of Findlay but don't live there.

But they're doing their shopping, they're spending their time.

They're working.

So we need a little bit of everything.

And so it's not an us versus them, rural versus suburban or or urban.

It's really a rising tide lifts all ships.

I couldn't agree more with that.

I mean, what we're advocating here is really a win win, because when you invest in cities, you're really investing in regions.

And at least in southwest Ohio, it goes from the city of Cincinnati to rural agricultural land very, very quickly.

And so the impact that you're having in Cincinnati not only impacts Hamilton, but also Butler and Brown, Liberty Township.

And so it's a it's a ripple effect that will really benefit these outside outlier rural areas as well.

And the second thing that I would say is this really shouldn't be a Partizan issue.

What we are all focused on is what's in the best interest of Ohio growing our population growing, our tax base, growing.

Those investments aren't Republican or Democrat.

What's in the best interest of the state?

And mayors, I think, are uniquely situated to be that advocate, because the most effective mayors in the state and in the country are far more pragmatic than they are Partizan.

We are really just looking for what works, not what's red or blue.

And I think, oh, I was just going to add it's also not growth just for growth sakes.

If we're looking at we want the state of Ohio to continue to be competitive and a long term place for all of this economic investment.

We're seeing, we need to have the workforce.

And the reality is, is that the workforce of yesterday is not the workforce of tomorrow.

So how do we make sure that we're fighting the brain drain, that we're getting people to, to live in our communities, to come experience here?

Because the companies that we have today are not going to be able to stay if they can attract top talent.

And that top talent wants to live in our cities.

And some, you know, I think one thing to do is an investment in our city is an investment in the region.

Like Aftab said is those are those are really benefiting the entire area.

But quite often the large cities are targets of comments that are not exactly favorable.

So how do you push back on that?

Well, look, it's about relationships and it's about advocating for the best interests of all of my constituents.

Not not red or blue.

And and look, there's going to be disagreements, of course, between local municipal leaders, whether they're Republican or Democrat versus statewide leaders.

We have oftentimes different constituencies.

But hopefully in this environment in particular, what we can all get behind is what is in the best interest of the state wide, and that is population growth.

That is, all of us should be concerned about these long term projections for the fiscal health of our of our state based on the population.

And what we're saying is mayors is we we share your concern, and we're putting on the table a solution, which is to invest in the economic drivers of our state, where infrastructure is already built, where people are wanting to grow.

That's it.

It's a straightforward strategy that I think will have benefits, not just right now, but for decades to come.

You kind of addressed this, but why should people in rural areas care about this?

I mean, a lot of those folks live in those areas because they have deliberately rejected the city lifestyle.

Yeah, cities aren't for everybody to live, right?

We need our agricultural community.

We need our more rural areas.

But ultimately, where are you going?

Grocery shopping.

When you're going to buy presents for your kids?

Where are you going to buy those presents when your grandkids are visiting and you want to take them to do something not just outside, you know, say it's about you need your urban centers.

So how do we make sure that we're balancing that and recognizing you don't have to live in the city to want it to be successful.

And one of the things we look at in Findlay, we have a lot of people that one of the spouses works at one of our corporations, and then the other is living at the is at the farm.

Well, they're getting their insurance from that job in Findlay.

So how do we make sure that those opportunities continue to be there?

And to your prior comment, I'll say that I think it's always important for politicians, especially right now, is to think of how your comments are painting our state, whether it is a negative comment that's based in reality and fact or something that's just gaining you political points, I think we need to be really cognizant of how those negative comments impact the state of Ohio as a whole and are really telling our message.

You know, there's a lot of great things going on in our state, and we need to be lifting that up rather than constantly focusing on the negative, because the negative is really only going to be solved if we're working together.

And if you're starting the dialog by criticism, that's not going to be productive.

We agree with the with the rural communities.

They don't live in the city by design, by their decision.

And what we're saying is, unless you start investing into our urban areas to catalyze that growth, you're going to see more investments that are disrupting these rural and agricultural areas that I'm sure those local constituents don't want.

So we're actually in agreement that the growth, the tip of the spear of growth should be in the urban areas that are set up for that and that want that wanted, rather than the rural agricultural areas that probably have a different opinion on that.

Let's talk about something fun, home rule, which I know you folks love to talk about.

You've got the Ohio Mayors Alliance listed as a legislative priority, this time to create a commission to kind of look into home rule.

What are the concerns about Home Rule right now with this legislature, especially since lawmakers consistently remind us reporters that Ohio is a home rule state?

And yet there's legislation that really seems to challenge that.

Yeah, I think you said it great, right.

We are a home rule state, and we recognize that it is at times challenging to figure out solutions that their citizens are bringing forward.

Right.

If you as a legislator are hearing from constituents, oh, this is a problem, you need to do something about it.

They want to do something about it.

But the reality is that's not always their responsibility.

And our state legislature needs to be okay with saying, I agree that's a problem.

And the way in Ohio, we believe it should be solved is by our different communities putting forward solutions to address that.

So you should reach out to your council members or your mayor.

Does the state do that enough?

Look, I think I think there are challenges with home Rule, for sure, whether it's public safety, whether it's economic development, whether it's climate issues.

But but these are opportunities for us to collaborate and partner.

Because at the end of the day, I genuinely believe that the constituencies in Cincinnati are different than than Marion, are different than Findlay.

And so respecting voters decisions on the ground in the local community about who they want to govern them and about what the policies are that they want to be governed under, I think, is a fundamental tenet of our democracy.

So there are disagreements.

There are frustrations, for sure.

But at the end of the day, I'm confident we'll be able to iron those out.

I one more thing.

One of the Ohio Mayor's Alliance's legislative priorities is also to create a new state funding stream to support critical public safety needs at the local level, where the focus on hiring, attracting and retaining talented public safety professionals.

How is that going?

Look, it it is no secret that the statehouse has been has been taking money away from the local government fund for more than a decade now, and I don't want to speak for Mayor Murphy, but 80% of my operating budget goes to public safety, and within that 80%, you know, close to 90% goes to salaries.

We are paying for as many recruit classes as we can possibly pay for in order to get our complement up.

But the issue isn't with budgeting the recruit classes.

The issue is with getting people to actually fill those classes, and the best way to do that is to offer competitive benefits and competitive salaries.

But because our local government fund has been reduced for more than a decade, it's being it's getting harder and harder to pay the salaries necessary to get the best and the brightest into public safety.

And so that's why this is a narrowly tailored strategy to try to to try to persuade our state House leaders that if public safety is our number one priority, which I believe it is, and if we want to actually fund and back the blue, which I believe we do, then we need these dollars from the state House to supplement what we are already putting forward to actually get the recruit classes filled.

Yeah.

In the city of Findlay, over 60% of our budget in the general fund is going directly towards safety services.

So I think the conversation around, hey, funding continues to be eroded through the local government fund and through estate tax changes, all these different things.

And it continues to put pressure.

It's like death by a thousand cuts.

And so if the city is continuing to have to take on more of the cost responsibility, but we're having more pressures on us with our revenues not keeping pace with inflation.

Right.

We're seeing the same challenges our constituents are with how managing our expenses.

So saying, hey, state this may not be the long term end all be all fixed to safety services across our state.

But when that's our largest expenditure and our top priority, let's work together at the state and local level to see what solutions we can put forward to make sure that we're really investing in this critical aspect of our communities.

You can hear thoughts from mayors pure of all and moron on data centers from last week's show.

Check our archive at State News.

And we end this week with the unveiling of a portrait that's been missing from the statehouse for years because it hasn't been painted.

That is, of Republican Speaker Ryan Smith.

He was elected following the resignation of Cliff Rosenberger in 2018, and he was ousted by Larry Householder in 2019, who was then ousted as speaker by his colleagues in 2020 after his arrest in the House Bill six scandal and then expelled from the House in 2021.

Smith is now the president of the University of Rio Grande and Rio Grande Community College, but says he misses the people and process in government, but not the politics.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the state House News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our website at State News or find us online by searching State of Ohio Show.

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And please join us again next time for the State of Ohio.

Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from the law offices of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at Porter Wright.com.

Porter Wright.

inspired every day.

And from the Ohio education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools every child deserves.

More at OHEA.org