Keep majority rule on local taxes

Ohio Republicans sure do like the idea of making it harder for voters to pass things. The most notorious example of that idea was a failed push in August 2023 to raise the threshold for amending the Ohio Constitution from 50 percent plus one vote to 60 percent. We'll circle back to idea of supermajority rule in a moment, but it's important to remember that the whole point of that exercise was to make it harder to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution, something most Republicans opposed. A few months after 57 percent of Ohio voters rejected making the state Constitution harder to amend, about the same percentage voted in favor of the abortion-rights amendment. Despite these setbacks, some Republicans are still kicking around the 60 percent threshold idea, the Ohio Statehouse News Bureau reported last month. Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, acknowledged that he wasn't sure there was a path to do so at the time, but he supported the idea. "There may be good government folks who want it raised to 60 percent," he told the Statehouse News Bureau. "I think that it should be." It should not. Unfortunately, the idea of a 60 percent threshold seems to have captured the imagination of a small group of Republicans, including state Rep. Dave Thomas, R-Jefferson, in a different context. They have put forward a bill that would require 60 percent of voters to approve local taxes. Right now, it takes a simple majority of voters to accomplish the same feat, which is as it should be. "These things should have broader consensus in the community because it impacts everyone in the community," Thomas told The Plain Dealer last week. The point is to make it harder to pass local taxes, which local governments rely on for a significant amount of their funding. Some tax questions put to Lorain County voters in May's election did pass by more than 60 percent, but almost all those were renewals of existing taxes. For example, Elyria's Issue 5, which renewed a 0.5 percent income tax increase first approved by voters in 2016, passed with the support of 62.3 percent of voters. Not every renewal was so fortunate. For instance, a renewal levy for Clearview Schools passed with the support of 52.9 percent of voters. Some replacement levies, which update tax rates to reflect current property values, also passed with more than 60 percent support. New money was an entirely different story. Of the requests for additional money that appeared on the ballot, two, an operating levy for Elyria Schools and a bond issue for Vermilion Schools, failed. Two others, a bond issue and an operating levy for Avon Lake Schools, passed, but only narrowly. That was especially true for the bond issue, which passed with 50.14 percent support. The operating levy passed with the support of 53.18 percent of voters. Had Thomas' bill been the law of the land, both would have failed, complicating Avon Lake Schools' efforts to deal with aging infrastructure and budget shortfalls. About 55.2 percent of Avon voters cast their ballots in favor of a 0.2 percent income-tax hike to fund police and fire protection. That issue enjoyed such support, we suspect, because the city promised voters it would stop collecting three property tax levies if the income-tax increase passed. Avon's income-tax increase also would have failed under Thomas' proposal. There's also a movement afoot to ask voters to amend the Ohio Constitution to outlaw property taxes. It's a terrible idea that would be catastrophic for local governments, including public schools. These ideas are designed to tap into public frustration over rising property values, which have led to increases in property taxes, including in Lorain County. As we've noted before, supporters of such ideas, including in the GOP-dominated state legislature, don't appear to have plans to help struggling local governments, including schools, facing tough financial circumstances. The House and Senate versions of the biennial state would both cut funding for public schools. In the long term, public libraries also appear as if they, too, could face state funding cuts. (The House and Senate are still hammering out the differences in their budget bills. The deadline to pass the state budget is June 30.) The Senate also has proposed flattening Ohio's income tax, with most of the benefits going to the richest Ohioans. There's reason to fear that as Republicans slash taxes at the state level, they also could cut the funding the state sends to local governments. (That's what happened when state income taxes were cut while Republican John Kasich was governor.) Imagine how hard it would be to persuade 60 percent of voters, most of whom are upset with rising property taxes, to replace lost state funding by way of a local tax increase. People don't enjoy paying taxes, but they do tend to like what they get for their tax dollars: public schools, police and fire protection, libraries and all manner of other necessary government services. As with amending the state Constitution, the majority should continue to rule when it comes to local taxes.