COLUMBUS — Ohio school districts would be able to keep a bit more of their savings accounts before being forced to refund the largess to taxpayers under changes made Tuesday in anticipation of a full budget vote in the House on Wednesday.
Also among numerous late changes by the House Finance Committee were pay raises for county, township, and judicial officials; elimination of the county coroner as an elected position; and elimination of the Ohio Election Commission that judges campaign violations.
The committee, with Republican votes only, sent the full House a proposed two-year budget that would tinker with what it calls major property tax reform with schools but would not restore the current formula that drives basic state aid to them.
The massive amendment would increase the savings account that schools may carry from one year to the next to no more than 30 percent of their prior year’s operating budget. That’s up from the previously proposed 25 percent.
House Finance Chairman Brian Stewart (R., Ashville) said the number of school districts with carryovers of more than 30 percent, triggering the property tax giveback, will still be in the high 400s out of 600-plus districts.
“If this bill had been in effect already, this would have constituted a $4.2 billion property tax relief cumulatively for the state of Ohio,” he said.
Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney (D., Cleveland), the committee’s ranking Democrat, called it “fake property tax relief.”
“On top of walking away from that [Fair School Funding Plan] formula, they are then saying we are going to shame the school districts for having too much money on their hands without acknowledging why they have too much money on their hands,” she said.
“[It’s] because we are not paying our fair share ...,” Ms. Sweeney said. “If we put this bill today into law we are going to have an explosion of property taxes.”
If it makes the final bill that reaches the governor’s desk, the Ohio Elections Commission would end as of Jan. 1, and what’s left of its authority would shift to county boards of election and the Ohio secretary of state.
“You have the attorney general who concurs with a wide array of practitioners appearing there who say what we have does not work,” Mr. Stewart said. “It’s not providing the timely process that it was intended to.”
“It no longer has to determine whether claims are false or not because a big part of their mission was struck down by the United States Supreme Court,” he said. “They’ve not been able to process cases in a timely manner. Even politicians deserve due process.”
He said the move would save the state $500,000 to $600,000 a year.
Still pending before the OEC are alleged violations of state campaign finance law by former House Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges in connection with the $61 million nuclear bailout scheme that landed both in federal prison.
Other highlights of Tuesday’s massive amendment would:
● Provide for pay raises ranging from 1.75 percent to 5 percent a year through 2029 for justices, judges, and county and township officials.
● Eliminate the county coroner as an elected official, allowing commissioners to instead contract with a medical examiner. Current coroners would be grandfathered in.
● Raise motor vehicle registration and renewal fees by $5 to help fund the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
● Remove proposed language that would have required the state to take advantage of President Trump’s offer to help the state find the drugs to restart executions.
● Mandate implementation of age verification by websites offering pornographic material with attorney general authorized to sue over violations.
● Criminalize deep fake sexual imagery.
● Stick with the plan to borrow $600 million to help the owners of the Cleveland Browns pay for a new stadium in neighboring Brook Park as opposed to Gov. Mike DeWine’s plan to increase the tax on sports betting for such projects.
● Detail already-planned cuts of $120 million to Mr. DeWine’s H2Ohio program designed to fight toxic algal blooms on Lake Erie and water quality across the state.
● Expand operation of charitable electronic bingo, including allowing sporting organizations to participate.
● Allow advance online orders of fireworks.
● Rejoin the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact.
● Ask the federal government to allow the state to bar food stamp recipients from using the money to buy sugar-added beverages.
First Published April 8, 2025, 9:03 p.m.
