by Nicole Piscitani • Oct. 12, 2025

The Ohio Legislature returned to Columbus and has continued working on several property tax bills. Both chambers have six session days planned in October and November and one potential session day in December. Property tax bills are due in early 2026, and the legislature is pushing to move legislation before the end of October to potentially impact the 2026 tax collection.

Below is a summary of what’s taken place since legislators returned to the Statehouse.

Senate votes to override item 66 — School district property tax levy restrictions
House Bill (HB) 96 contained provisions that would have eliminated replacement property tax levies as well as fixed-sum emergency, substitute emergency and combined school district income tax and fixed-sum property tax levies. Additionally, the bill eliminated the renewal with an increase levy. However, Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed that language. The Ohio House returned in mid-July to start the process of overriding item 66, but the Ohio Senate decided to wait until fall when legislators were scheduled for session days. On Oct. 1, the Ohio Senate voted to override the DeWine’s veto with a 21-11 vote. That provision of HB 96 will go into effect on Dec.30, 2025.

DeWine’s property tax workgroup
DeWine vetoed numerous property tax items in HB 96 and created a property tax workgroup to examine the items that were vetoed and look into other property tax issues in order to develop recommendations. The workgroup completed and released its report on Sept. 30. The report contains 20 recommendations. Several recommendations will impact public education local funding:

  • Refine the process and definition of county budget commissions (CBC), including a timeline from when a levy is passed to when a budget commission could reduce said levy.
  • Limit carryover balances for all taxing districts to 100%. Any carryover balance over 100% would need to be justified in writing to the satisfaction of the CBC.
  • Enact legislation that eliminates the future use of substitute levies and rename all current substitute and emergency levies to “fixed-sum levies.” Future renewal of a “fixed-sum levy” would apply to the 20-mill floor with continuing substitute levies applying to the floor after five years.
  • Support House Bill 186, as amended by the House Ways and Means Committee in June 2025, and extend its principles to inside millage.
  • Implement reforms to levy ballot language that promote transparency and clarification when a voter is voting on a levy.
  • Restrict emergency levies to entities under fiscal caution, watch or emergency as defined by the Auditor of State and impose a time limit.
  • Property tax exemptions should be regularly reviewed and evaluated.
  • Support House Bill 154. Require that Ohio’s school districts have the ability to disapprove of a Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) program that will impact the school district.
  • Codify limits for the creation of Residential Stability Zones.
  • Encourage the Governor to form a working group to look at and analyze the efficiencies of the various levels of government.
  • Consideration of expanding the Homestead Exemptions and/or Implementing a Property Tax Circuit Breaker.

A copy of the report can be found here.

HB 129
The House Ways and Means committee has amended this bill twice since returning. The first amendment largely removed portions of the bill to align with language included in HB 96. The second amendment included several suggestions from DeWine’s property tax workgroup as well as language that addresses concerns from overriding Item 66.

The bill now does the following as it pertains to the 20-mill floor and fixed-sum levies:

  • Requires that current expense fixed-sum levies be included in the calculation of a school district’s 20-mill floor or a joint vocational school district’s 2-mill floor for property tax purposes. The following types of levies will be included in the 20-mill floor calculation: emergency, substitute, conversion, growth and fixed-sum tax coupled with an income tax levy. 
  • Includes fixed-sum levies in the first tax year, beginning in tax year 2026, in which a county in which the district has territory undergoes a reappraisal or triennial update. 
  • Allows school districts to pursue fixed-sum levies in either of two cases:
    1. If the district levied an emergency levy approved by voters before 2026;
    2. If it is in fiscal emergency, watch or caution or if a president or governor has declared an emergency in the district's territory. 
  • Specifies that, in either circumstance, the levy must be labeled as a fixed-sum levy (not an emergency levy), must be for current operating expenses, may not be renewed and may only be levied for up to five years. 
  • Clarifies that the renewal of a fixed-sum levy that was first approved by voters before Sept. 29, 2013, is still subject to the property tax rollbacks for nonbusiness property (10%) and owner-occupied residences (2.5%) after its renewal as a fixed-sum levy under the amendment. 

The Ohio House voted 81-16, and the bill is now in the Ohio Senate. While the Ohio House amended the bill to address emergency levies, the legislation does not make any changes to substitute levies and the ability to renew them for a short period of time.

HB 309
This bill was also amended twice since the legislature returned. Similar to HB 129, the bill was first amended to align with provisions in HB 96 and later amended to bring in recommendations from the workgroup. This bill was passed by the Ohio House with a 75-19 vote.

The bill:

  • Allows a CBC to reduce millage on any voter-approved tax levy aside from a debt levy if it finds it necessary or prudent to do so. 
  • Defines "unnecessary" and "excessive" tax collections. 
  • Only allow such actions after five years and require a CBC to hold a hearing prior to reducing the amount or rate of any tax.  
  • Limits CBC authority to reduce levies collected for the use of majority-elected taxing units below what the levies collected in the prior year or, for school districts, below 20-mills except by request of the school district.
  • Requires the tax commissioner to annually adjust the rate of a fixed-sum levy so that it will continue to raise the sum approved by voters and to certify that adjustment to county auditors.

One issue that is silent in the legislation is the authority of a CBC to reduce a renewed levy. Currently, if a levy is newly renewed the CBC could still reduce the millage. The Ohio Senate will begin working on this bill.

HB 335
The original version of this bill combined several already introduced bills and a provision that would mostly eliminate inside millage for local taxing units. The bill was amended to remove all of the original language and replaced those provisions with language that would cap inside millage using the GDP deflator, which is an inflation index. This inflationary cap would be applied to the entirety of the 10 mills and all of the local taxing units that receive those dollars when the county goes through either the sexennial reappraisal or the three-year update. Currently, the bill would impact tax year 2026 but the effective could change depending on if and when the bill is enacted. This bill is still in committee and could see additional amendments.

HB 186
The original version of HB 186 would authorize a reduction in school district property taxes affected by a millage floor, limiting increases in such taxes according to inflation, and would require a corresponding adjustment in the school-funding formula. Before the legislature left for summer recess, the committee amended the bill to remove the provisions that would have accounted for inflation reductions in the school-funding formula. Since returning from the break, the House Ways and Means Committee has changed the bill to not only be prospective but would now be retroactively applied to tax years 2023 and 2024. The retroactive language will severely impact those school districts and joint vocational school districts. Simulations of the property tax revenue impact can be found here. This bill is still in committee and could be amended.

The Ohio General Assembly has indicated that it wants the property tax bills to be to DeWine by the end of October. Based on the level of action that has occurred over the two weeks since they have returned, they appear to be on track to make that deadline.

Posted by Angela Penquite on 10/13/2025