House Republicans vote to override Gov. DeWine's veto, restrict local levies

Republicans in the state House of Representatives voted Monday to override one of the 67 line item vetoes Republican Gov. Mike DeWine made to the state's budget, known as House Bill 96, earlier this month. The vote is the first step for Republicans to add Item 66 back into the two-year, $60 billion state budget. Item 66 would eliminate the authority of local governments and school districts to place emergency or replacement levies on the ballot. Republicans will still need a three-fifths vote in the state Senate to override the governor's veto. Republicans said that local authority to enact such levies was confusing and unfair to voters, and that removing the power would lead to property tax relief after a year in which property values soared by roughly 30 percent across much of the state, increasing property tax rates along with them. State Rep. David Thomas, R-Jefferson, said that property tax increases were a burden that Ohioans could not continue to bear. "We are in a crisis, and when you're in a crisis you act immediately," Thomas said on the floor Monday. He said that emergency and replacement levies were confusing to voters and were "tools to increase taxes." He also pointed out that the change will only impact future levies, not ones which are currently in place. "(Item 66) puts the power back in the homeowner, it ends the confusion," "When you go to the ballot, there will be simple questions: do you want to increase your taxes (or) do you want to keep your taxes the same. That is what you'll be faced with. You will not see confusing language like 'replacement' and 'substitute' and inflammatory language like 'emergencies.'" Democrats have countered that the restrictions would harm school districts and communities financially by reducing their flexibility and making it more difficult to pass levies while also not addressing the issues which increase property taxes. "(Item 66) does nothing to provide property tax relief to homeowners," state Rep. Beryl Piccolantonio, D-Gahanna said on the floor Monday. "But what it does do, is that it hurts our schools, our fire departments, our children's services agencies, our services for seniors and on and on and on… We are depriving our communities of needed resources while simultaneously tying their hands as they scramble to make up the difference. In a public letter sent after the vote Monday, the Ohio Education Association urged the state Senate not to affirm the veto override, saying that it was "short-sighted" and would risk the long-term financial stability of school districts without providing substantial relief to taxpayers. "Ohioans deserve meaningful, long-term property tax relief — something that cannot and should not be achieved on the backs of Ohio's public school students," said OEA President Jeff Wensing in the release. "Although the Ohio House is trying to ram through half-baked band-aid fixes that could force school districts across the state to increase class sizes and cut programs students need to succeed, the Ohio Senate has the opportunity to serve the people of our state with integrity and strength by allowing Governor DeWine's veto to stand." According to the Ohio Department of Taxation, replacement levies are levies which take the place of a current, expiring levy, but take into account current property tax rates, rather than the tax rate at the time at which the levy passed, which is how renewal levies operate. Emergency levies are designed to meet a community or district's urgent financial needs and raise a set amount of money. This is unlike other levies, which raise a variable amount of money because they are based on mills, Ohio's units for assessing property tax rates. State Rep. Gayle Manning, R-Avon, herself a former teacher, said that she voted to override the veto because she felt that her constituents needed some kind of relief from rising property rates, and that the current levy system was potentially confusing to voters. "I find all these very difficult to do because you have people on both sides — and I certainly understand that — but we do have a lot of people that are having difficulty paying their property taxes. As we all know, they've (property taxes) gone up considerably," Manning said on Monday. "We just want to make sure that there's more transparency on what you're voting for. I certainly think everybody who benefits from different taxes usually does their due diligence, at least in Lorain County." In the Ohio Legislature, overriding a veto from the Governor requires a three-fifths majority in both the state House and state Senate, and on Monday, House Republicans carried the veto by a 61-38 vote of the Democrats in a party-line vote. Republicans will now need to muster 20 votes in the 33-member Senate, which they have the numbers for if the vote again falls on party lines. The Senate does not currently have any planned meetings until Sept. 23, but legislators could be called back to session earlier. The Ohio Statehouse News Bureau reported the House had initially planned to vote to override three of DeWine's vetoes on Monday, all relating to property taxes. The two vetoes which were not brought to the floor on Monday would have allowed county budget authorities to reduce levies and change how property tax rates are calculated. House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said that those vetoes, as well as several others, would be brought to the floor in the fall. "It was really kind of unclear to me whether we would get to 60 votes on 55 and 65 today," Huffman said, referring to the other vetoed items, according to the News Bureau. "I think if we have more discussion, we'll come back in October. It's my expectation that we will take veto overrides on those two and likely some others also." Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.