Shownotes
"Tax Fairness for Homeowners": "We need to keep senior citizens in their homes or disabled folks or veterans so they get to keep their homes by doing something for the property taxes so they don't get taxed out of their houses." - State Senator Bill DeMora
In this episode, we look into the pressing issue of the housing crisis and its impact on property taxes in Ohio. Joining us is Ohio State Senator Bill DeMora of the 25th District, who shares his journey from being the "accidental senator" to his current role in public office.
Together, we dissect the challenges posed by skyrocketing housing costs and lack of availability, leading to a dramatic 35% increase in property taxes following a recent reappraisal process. Senator DeMora provides insight into the complex property tax system, touching on the intricacies of state and local revenue impacts, as well as the pivotal role taxes play in supporting essential community services such as schools, fire departments, and police.
Our discussion also highlights the crucial need for legislative action to address these taxing issues, as citizens grapple with burdensome levies while demanding fair solutions.
We encourage you to get involved in the political process, be it through testifying in committees or participating in local government meetings, further underlining the importance of civic engagement in instituting change.
If you like this episode, please let us know. We appreciate the feed back, and your support of offset costs of producing the podcast!
Key Takeaways
- Understanding Property Taxes: How the rise in housing costs and lack of availability have sparked a significant increase in property taxes. Senator DeMora explained the appraisal process affecting both personal and business properties.
- Legislation & Relief Efforts: The need for practical solutions to address the tax burden, like the suggested circuit breaker, raising the homestead exemption, and freezing property taxes for seniors. It's crucial for legislative action to keep pace with the changing demands.
- Civic Engagement: The importance of getting involved in local government processes. From testifying at committee hearings to participating in city council meetings, citizen engagement can influence policy changes and bring attention to vital community issues.
Key Moments
00:00 Accidental Senator Due to Redistricting
03:23 State's Funding Shift Sparks Controversy
09:11 Civic Participation in Government
10:50 "Children's Hearing Aid Bill Passed"
14:53 County Property Tax Distribution
16:41 Franklin County Housing Demand Surge
20:48 Races Influence Ballot Issues Outcome
23:38 "Addressing Property Tax Relief Options"
28:15 Central Ohio's Collaborative Economic Strategy
29:36 Intel Project's Uncertain Future
36:03 Property Tax Reforms Needed
37:10 Ohio School Funding and Voucher Impact
40:16 Ohio's Declining Education Funding
45:54 Columbus School Board Overhaul
49:16 Franklin County Grants and Resources
51:19 Columbus Demands Suburbs Support Affordable Housing
54:36 Addressing Property Tax and Housing Issues
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Recorded in Studio C at 511 Studios. A production of Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants.
Copyright 2025 Carol Ventresca and Brett Johnson
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Mentioned in this episode:
Listener Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the experts interviewed on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the podcast hosts or any affiliated organizations. The information provided in these interviews is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with qualified professionals for specific advice or information related to their individual circumstances. The podcast host and producers do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information provided by the experts interviewed. Listener discretion is advised.
Transcripts
We are Looking Forward Our Way. Hi. This is Brett. Over the past few years, the housing crisis created innumerable challenges. With the lack of housing and increase in housing costs, we had a dramatic increase in property taxes. The recent reappraisal process saw tax bills increase by nearly 35%. That's not an easy issue to digest, but today, we're gonna closely examine what happened and what we Ohioans can do about it. Let's welcome our guest, State Senator Bill DeMora of Ohio's 25 District.
Brett Johnson [:Senator DeMora, thank you for joining us.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Thank you for having me.
Carol Ventresca [:I am very privileged to have known Senator DeMora for many years going back to I think he was a new graduate from Ohio State.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Probably 1989 is when I graduated. Yeah.
Carol Ventresca [:Yeah. Just about that time, working on the, Young Buckeyes alumni club.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Yeah.
Carol Ventresca [:So that's how how Bill and I crossed tracks. But in January of this year, he wrote a guest column for the local paper, which really struck me deeply. Needless to say, my county and my pocket were hit really hard in the tax increase. So but, senator, before we get into this incredibly complex issue, we wanna know more about you, your career in the political realm, and now you're in an elected office. What issues are most important to you?
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Well, I mean, I'm in the minority. Obviously, I tell people I'm the accidental senator because back in 2022, when they had all the redistricting mess and they couldn't decide on a district and the court kept striking him down, the federal court mandated a district that was in effect until January first of this year, and we had no candidate in it. So being the petition guy for the state Democratic Party and the county Democratic Party, I circulated petitions in a weekend before what should have been the new filing deadline, which would have been the May primary date back in 2022 because we had two primaries, May and September, because of the redistricting mess. And I filed senators. We told a dozen people to file. No one else filed. It was just me. And then we had to sue, this, you know, secretary of state denied my candidacy along with several others because he said that August election was a special election, not a primary, even though it was just when people running were Democrats against Democrats and Republicans because Republicans, which is the definition of a primary.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:And the state supreme court ruled four to three. The case was Demora et Al versus LaRose. Demora got four votes. LaRose got three, putting myself, Anita Simani from the Hilliard area, and some other people across the state on the ballot that year in 2022 for the August election so long as they had enough signatures and qualified otherwise. So I got on the ballot, and everybody thought I was a placeholder. But the way the court ruled with the elections calendar, if I if I would have dropped out after winning the primary, it would have been too late to get out for the general election. So that seat would have been vacant again. So here I am, the external senator.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Never thought I'd be in public office. I I like being the guy behind the scenes. I've been running campaigns for thirty years and been the, you know, the lack of a better word, the hatchet man for the Democratic party for that long. So but now I'm in public office, and it's different, especially in the minority, especially when, you know, there are you have to conduct yourself one way instead of the way I used to conduct myself, which was scorched earth policy. But, history is important to me. I mean, obviously, both my parents were public school teachers. I went to public schools. So public school education is very important to me.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:What the state is doing, not funding public schools and giving all the money to vouchers, is is ridiculous, and and I I fought against vouchers and and and state money going to private schools. The property tax, committee I was on last year, and we do something for proper taxes, and we'll get into that later. Another issue I mean, I've been trying to find you know, I introduce bills sometimes just for the media attention, and I have several of those that my peacock bill to Bay and Ohio State Sports on peak on streaming only services, which has gotten me a national attention, the last couple weeks. Another bill to, go after our Supreme Court ruled last year that boneless is a way to prepare a wing and not a description of the wing, and they can have bones and boneless wings in Ohio, the only state in the union that you can that that according to the Supreme Court, you have the you have the you should expect a bone and a boneless wing because chickens have bones in them. I don't know how they came up with that decision, but that's why I have legislation that would And
Carol Ventresca [:nothing better to
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:do. Better to do. So I have well, I mean, I have legislation that would, one can help the the gentleman who got the bone stuck in him and and was in a coma for two months, but it would it would it would change the way that these cases are are decided in the future. I have, you know, I'm working on other legislation to, you know, deal with I mean, I've been I'm only both utilities committee and the energy committee. We've been dealing with that huge energy bill the last three months that maybe we're voting on next week. So I was on I was the Democratic Party expert on marijuana. Our bill was horrible. The senate passed basically taking voice of rights away from them.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:I voted no. They didn't put any of the stuff in there that I wanted. So I've been working on all kinds of things because it's never it's never a dull moment in the state house.
Carol Ventresca [:Oh, it it's not a dull moment in the state house. And and, luckily, you even as an accidental senator, you walked in, as you said, with thirty years experience behind the scenes. Now you're the the picture, the the the face of, the opposition, and that has to have changed your life a lot.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:I don't have changed my life. I'm still doing my other jobs. I mean, last year, I was running a statewide two statewide campaign for incumbents being court candidates. I was running a local judicial race. I was running another, person running in a primary and then general election for, House of Representatives here in Franklin County. And I was in charge of the national convention and doing delegate selection and ran the entire convention in Chicago for my eighth time, in the interiors. I was we're I still do my other jobs. This is just another job I have.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:So I have three full time jobs now instead of just one or two.
Carol Ventresca [:You know, people are complaining a lot about politics. And I always say, do something. Don't sit back and just complain. But part of this always also is people aren't running for office. People are so sick of the whole process, the whole system that nobody wants to put their name out there like you have in many different venues.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:No. That's a problem. I mean, in Franklin County, that's not an issue because here, unlike the rest of the state, Franklin County along with, you know, Cincinnati, Cleveland areas are dominated by Democrats, and we always have more people wanting to run for office than peep than spots available. And we've a lot of times that primary you're seeing right now, we have 10 people running for Columbus school board. We have three people running for the open seat in Columbus City Council. We have lots of races going on in the suburbs. I think there are six Democrats running for four seats in Hilliard in the council primary. So in Frank County, that's not the case.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:The state party has been trying to get people to run-in every office across state for school board, for township trustee, for city council, for mayors. And we've been doing a bunch to increase people running for office, but I agree. It's at the local level, it's not maybe as bad, but, you know, I mean, everything's so divided now. Although, I have great relationship with most of my Republican colleagues, and most bills at the state house, ninety percent of them are voted out basically unanimously. It's just the ones that everybody reads about. The contentious ones are always voting along party lines unless a Republican or two comes on our side because they realize how bad something is. Like, two Republicans voted against s p one, which would gut higher education. Two Republicans actually voted on our side.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:So the the vote was was 11 votes against instead of the normal nine because early nine it was in the senate. But, people do have to get involved. If if no one if you don't get involved, then basically what happens to you, you know, you don't matter. But if you get involved and make your voice out there, then people gotta pay attention to you. I mean, I talk to constituents all the time. And and, again, part of the problem is that our legislative districts and our congressional districts are so gerrymandered that one side's gonna win them regardless of I mean, you know, the the pope could run for a state representative in some of these districts in rural Ohio, and he he'd only get 20% of the vote. Right. So it's it's that that's how bad the districts are, and that discourages people.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:But, overall, I mean, like I said, it gets contentious for certain issues at the state house, but, I mean, afterward, we we do socialize, and I do get along with most of our Republican colleagues.
Carol Ventresca [:Well and Mhmm. I I have always found the system to be interesting. Yes. Frustrating, but interesting. I did an internship in congress when I was in graduate school. You can't know really what's going on unless you're in the midst of it. So even if you're not running for office, get involved, be active on campaigns, find out what's going on, talk to your local legislators.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Testify on committees. Testify in city council meetings. I mean, every public body has abilities to participate in their process, whether it's city council meetings with with going into city council meeting and talking about an issue or coming to the state house if there's a bill that you like or don't like. Any citizen can come and testify on it, and they're given point. They're all given the same amount of time. I mean, some committees, like yesterday for s b one, the senate I mean, the house was and they had over a hundred witnesses, and they limited it to only 70, and they cut people off. But the house did that. But, I mean, I'll give the senate credit even though the bill was horrible.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:The chairperson of of the higher education committee in the senate did allow everybody to testify and gave them all their three minutes to do do so. No matter how many people it was, they all got to testify. So, it's not usually different than than the house, but, everybody should come and testify because that's participating in government, and and that's what everybody should do. And we don't teach enough civics anymore. We don't teach enough how government works. Government affects everybody's buddy's life every day in multiple ways, whether it's the roads you drive on, the schools you go to, if you have high speed Internet or not, how much you're paying for insurance. All those things are governed by state government, and people need to be involved and know what how the process works, or they just you know, they can complain, but who's gonna listen to a complainer if Right. They don't participate?
Carol Ventresca [:Well and and, with all that's been going on, there are a lot of sites out there that'll tell you, you know, who are your legislators, who who is representing you. And listeners, don't forget, we always do a list of resources for each one of our podcasts, and we'll be putting all that information in there. So thank you for letting me do that little sort of wiggle around here.
Brett Johnson [:Well, I've gotta do a follow-up question. We'll we'll we're gonna get to it, though. And this is good, though. So the testifying, I get the impression that people yes. They want to go testify, but at the same time, you get the impression that they got their minds made up already. Is this the dog and pony show? Do do people listen to the testimonies and get an an earful at least we think.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:On some issues, they do. Now, of course, issues that are cultural hot button issues, people have their minds made up. And and And
Brett Johnson [:then it's kind of a general way to ask. I know. And it's a difficult way
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:to answer that. Tell you that I mean, last year in insurance committee during Leanback session, we were trying we were we were hearing testimony on Marcy's Law, which is would mandate children's hearing aids be covered by insurance. The bill had been introduced three consecutive sessions prior to that and never passed. And the house had already passed it, and the senate was was gonna pass it. And there were people that were not sure they were gonna vote for it. But the supporters of that bill brought in kids, literally, a six year old, an eight year old, a 12 year old, a 14 year old that had hearing aids that told their stories about that they couldn't hear and and, you know, they had to take my fund Fund Me page to get hearing aids because they couldn't hear. And now that they're hearing, they're learning so much better, and they're they don't feel ostracized in their classes. And I'll tell you, I was moved, and I know my colleagues were moved because that bill finally passed.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Okay. And we voted it out, and it now is law because the governor signed it. So it does on certain issues that aren't partisan. If they're if it's a completely partisan issue, again, maybe one or two people might switch, but then it's not gonna happen. But for issues like Marcy's Law, like other issues that are just trying to help people that are, I would call, you know, just good government issues, testifying on them can change, I mean, may an amendment that maybe no one thought about. If someone comes in and says, hey. Why aren't we doing this? That gets listened to, and and that gets into the the bill and it becomes law. So I again, if you're coming to say whether abortion should be legal or not, no one's gonna mind you're not gonna take anybody's mind on that.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:But something like this something like our our energy the utility bill we've been hearing, we've had dozens and dozens of witnesses, and we were on our sixth. We're gonna get our fifth or sixth draft of the bill because it keeps changing because people forget doing things. So testimony is is important because as legislators, we're not experts. We have to listen to people that are experts and come give their opinions. And if they point something out that we are missing or don't have in there that we think we should, it does it does matter.
Carol Ventresca [:And and and really part of that message is the legislators don't know what they don't know. They may not know to ask particular questions. If you don't bring it up, then basically don't sit at home and complain.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Right.
Carol Ventresca [:If you you have to bring it up.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Township issues. I mean, stuff that involves, you know, like the transportation bill. I mean, all kind of people come in for that. I mean, it's just and it's a wide open process. Amendments are turned in because people think of something, don't think of something.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Especially with the the general when it's folks of general public, like transportation.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Yes. I mean, again, partisan issues are never gonna change anybody's mind. Those are Exactly. No. No. Change any citizen's mind on where they think on it either. Unless, of course, you're you know, former senator Rob Portman didn't like LGBTQ people until Mhmm. His or until his child became one, and then, of course, he was a champion of their issue.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:So, you know, it's it's personal experience. But, again, he didn't change his mind because of people coming and doing it because his own child came out as gay. So but other than that, regular issues, we do listen to the citizens because we might not know enough about it.
Brett Johnson [:So Ohio's full tax system is complicated. Can you give us, as best as you can, an overview of the property tax system? I mean, it affects not only state tax revenue, but more importantly, our local communities for services like schools, fireplace, parks, and a whole lot more.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Right. So, I mean, it's very complicated as you said. It's property tax have been are based upon the appraised value of someone's personal property or business property. You know, businesses are taxed as well. All but certain, like, churches are not taxed. Certain, charitable groups' property is not taxed, but those are few and far between. And then, of course, have you seen a lot of locally people local municipalities give tax incentives or tax breaks or waive taxes on certain properties in in order to encourage them to move there or to develop there or to build housing or something like that. So all that stuff factors in.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:And so, basically, it's the appraisal is all the properties in this in in the in a county because each county appraises their own properties, and the taxes are distributed for each of the properties that are being taxed. So for instance, if if we had, say, 3,000 churches in Franklin County that made up one third of the land and they're not paying taxes, the people that own the other two thirds of land have to come up with have to between themselves, they get assessed that two thirds of the property taxes that are left, their percentage of it. So it's very complicated. Most property tax does go towards schools. I mean, some does go to garbage service, police and fire, that, but a lot of that stuff comes out of the general general fund budget as well, sales taxes, income taxes, and the like. So the majority in Ohio, the majority of property taxes are toward public schools. And it's, but, I mean, you know, tax entities in Ohio, you can have a county tax, a city tax, a township tax, a village tax, tax, a school district tax, and special districts like sewer districts or fire districts or, park districts, library districts. They all have the ability to tax, to assess property taxes if the voters most of them have to be approved by voters.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Some of them do not. Circumstances about emergency school taxes and stuff like that sometimes don't have to be passed by the voters, but majority of them have to be have to be approved by the voters who are are gonna be affected by the tax.
Carol Ventresca [:The reappraisal process is on a specific timeline.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Every six years total, but every three years, they come out with different values. Yes.
Carol Ventresca [:And and it's all you you just specified that. I was I always thought it was just personal property, but it also is business property too.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Correct. Commercial, everything. Yes.
Carol Ventresca [:Okay.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:So Franklin County did it in 2023. That's why all everybody's thing went up because and it's all also based on housing in the county or in the in in in the area because if we had plenty of houses, property values, you wouldn't pay as much to buy a property, to buy a house because there was plenty of it's all supply and demand. If there's lots of supply, the demand goes down and the prices goes down. If there's no supply, which Franklin County has no supply right now, and most of Ohio has no supply in the urban areas, then with low low supply, demand is high, and people are are going through the roof paying for tax. I mean, you try to install a house in Grandview right now. You would so you said if you're you're set to cost a half a million dollars. You would have five people offering you cash for 550 or $600,000 within a week trying to get that property because there's so few properties in in certain areas that people wanna live in. So that's what's based on too.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:So the if if your neighbor sells a house for $600,000, your house then is appraised at a higher level because that's on what the market is now demanding for a property similar to what you what you paid. So that's how things get kind of jacked up. In some areas where there is no demand for housing. I mean, lots of areas in Ohio no one wants to move to, even though although, I mean, all the areas around Franklin County are all high now because everybody wants to come. We're expecting, what, another 3 or 400,000 people in Franklin County in the next fifteen, twenty years. So the demand is unbelievable, and the supply is is is not there. We're supposed to build 20,000 houses a year to meet the supply. We're only building half of that.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:So that all drives up the appraisal value of the house, which means the property taxes are are raised. And it's not a one to one. You don't pay if my my house is worth half a million dollars, I'm not paying property taxes on that half a million. There are certain other formulas that come into play that reduce debt, and and you pay tax on a certain percentage of what your house is worth.
Brett Johnson [:And then in apartment apartment complexes, the taxes are paid by the, the complex owners?
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:The owners. And, of course, they build in their rent to That. That that and it goes in the rent. Yes. And all of them Okay.
Carol Ventresca [:And even like with I'm in a condominium, so I pay as the owner of the house. And, basically, I own the air inside my house because I don't the house itself is part of the condominium. Right. And the condominium pays taxes, but I get an assessment, so I'm actually paying twice.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Right. Okay. I also Yeah. And and condos have to have two insurances, one for everything inside your house. Right. And then the condo association has to have one for the dwelling, but you have to have your own insurance to cover what's inside your house. Correct?
Carol Ventresca [:And and the dwelling insurance, again, is paid because I have a condo fee.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Right. You
Carol Ventresca [:know? So because the associations don't have any money except those monthly fees to pay those kinds of bills. So Yeah. It it it is crazy.
Brett Johnson [:So we're seeing that taxes are also used for funding the administration of county and local entities like townships, but but there's a disconnect in the system. Right? The property owners are taxed, but everyone reaps the benefits of the services.
Carol Ventresca [:Well, it it basically, everybody votes on the tax levies, but the people who are paying the taxes are property owners, not, you know, people who are renting. Is that correct?
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Yes. I mean, for instance, that that's basically the the case, although renters end up end up paying it in indirect monthly. Right. Monthly. But Right. For instance, you know, back the reason that you put school levies up at certain times used to be because when you had a higher turnout elections, people would there'd be higher turnout, and there'd be higher turnout of people that aren't property owners that would vote for certain taxes. Nowadays, actually, the it's the opposite. If you're a school levy, you wanna go on an odd numbered year where there's lower turnout so you can turn out your supporters more by energizing them instead of having a higher turnout because the Trump effect, people are turning out more when Trump is on the ballot kind of thing.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Mhmm. And so now if you're doing a levy, you wanna do it the reason issue one and two passed in 2023 was because cities had mayoral races, council races, those sort of things. So there's gonna be a higher turnout in the cities for their internal races. And the people that were opposed to issue one and two, which were the abortion rights and and marijuana, they had nothing in their local communities to bring them out otherwise other than the state issue. So if you weren't paying attention, and that's why they both won overwhelmingly, If you saw issue one in 2024, lost because the people that came out to vote for Trump all voted no on issue one that would have changed districts because, of course, they the wording there are lots of issues, but, basically, what happened is people voted for Trump voted against issue one.
Brett Johnson [:And, basically, understanding how how people get energized
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:to vote Right.
Brett Johnson [:Is why you see certain things show up on that one.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:But, yeah, I'm
Carol Ventresca [:not Is there a backlash, though? Like, in Delaware County, my my, property taxes, 85% are the schools Mhmm. And the technical programs.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Yeah.
Carol Ventresca [:So it's all educational based. But so 85% is pretty high.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Most counties is is that high.
Carol Ventresca [:Okay. But, again, a whole lot of the folks who now I think Delaware County is probably more homeowners than renters, where Franklin County
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Except the Columbus outskirts around Polaris, those are all apartments, obviously.
Carol Ventresca [:Right. But is there a backlash with, folk with homeowners that are tired of paying
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:for taxes? Especially senior citizens who have fixed incomes, and we'll get into it later probably. But, one my one of the bills I have that I'm working on is to freeze property taxes of senior citizens if you're x number of age years old, 70 or 72. I forget what it's at now. And make under a certain amount of money per year. And if so, you're on fixed income. You've been in your house for ten years. You're over a you're over a certain age, or you're a disabled veteran or or some other, along things along those lines.
Brett Johnson [:That basically expand the homestead?
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:No. This would this would freeze this would freeze your property taxes at
Brett Johnson [:Gotcha.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:The pre level prior to being raised so that you could budget so you would have the same amount of property taxes every year. And it doesn't this this way doesn't take money away from the schools. It just it doesn't allow the schools to get extra money from those properties, but they know ahead of time who those properties are so they can budget those things. Okay. And we're not taking money away from them. Just the freezing amount that they had
Brett Johnson [:They they
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:had a certain they had a certain year.
Brett Johnson [:Formula. Okay.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Yeah. So and and then when the house is sold, whoever buys that house, the taxes go up to where they would be if if the person was paying them regularly. Okay. Doubling the homestead exemption. Right now, the homestead exemption is is something like 23 or $24,000. I have the exact number here. Let me find it. Yeah.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:And it's it's very low. I mean, you can't buy a shack, in in Franklin County for what the for what the homestead exemption is at now. So doubling that would help Yeah. Senior citizens, a lot of other people as well. A circuit breaker, meaning that if you if if the property tax would become over a certain more than a certain percentage of your income, then they would they would freeze at that level. So they couldn't so you couldn't it will say 5%. If if if you make a hundred thousand dollars and your property taxes go above $20,000 a year, five per I mean, sorry, $2,000 a year, 5% of your income Right. They would be frozen at that level.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:They couldn't go any higher. And then, of course, when the next person bought the house, they would go up again. Or another another thing we're discussing is allowing senior citizens to pay x amount. So they would they would they make payments, on their property taxes. Say their taxes were $2,000 a year, they couldn't afford that. Well, they would pay a thousand dollars a year, which they assume you could they could afford. Mhmm. And then the rest of it would be put I mean, is be made up by the county or the state.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:And when the house would be sold, the the property taxes are made up. The this the the entity makes hold makes a whole a new person that sale the house covers those taxes, so that it's basically, like, our first mortgage. Yeah. The senior citizen is not paying it now, but when the taxes are when the house is sold, they they don't get if they're if they owe $20,000 in back taxes because they've only paid 20,000 out of 40,000, the 20,000 of the house sale goes right to the payoff of that 20,000 again.
Brett Johnson [:So the the seller takes the seller takes care of that.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:The seller takes care of that. Right. It comes off off of what they would make as a profit because they just get a profit.
Brett Johnson [:So it doesn't stop the buyer.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:It doesn't stop the buyer. Correct.
Carol Ventresca [:So, really, what that's doing is it's preserving the ownership for the senior and and sort of puts the tax issue at bay for a short period of time.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Well, I mean, it could be it could be fifteen years Well or twenty years if you live that long. But yeah. And then after that twenty years, so if you owe if you owed, you know, if you owed what the house was worth, then the the the seller would not get anything. They would have to owe this back the property taxes back. But But on the other hand,
Carol Ventresca [:when senior is able to
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:sell The senior is able to stay in their home quick. Right. So Which is the
Brett Johnson [:ultimate goal. Which ultimate goal.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Which ultimate goal is everybody agrees on that. Right. Yeah.
Carol Ventresca [:One one of the things we're I'm gonna add to this resource list we have is we actually we had, Franklin County Auditor, Mike Stenziano, into
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:talk auditor in the state of Ohio by by far.
Carol Ventresca [:He is. He is. He is.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:I've known him since he was three years old.
Carol Ventresca [:I well, you know what? Actually, me too because I used to send interns to his dad Right. When he was in the legislature.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:So right now, actually, Homestead is 28,000. That was my so I'll make sure I got it right. Okay.
Carol Ventresca [:But, Mike told us a lot about what was going on. This was when when they were actively starting that reappraisal process, but he knew there was gonna be a problem. So if you want that back information about what was going on in Franklin County, we'll have that podcast for you too. Right. So you've already touched on this a little bit. It really goes. This this, was not just critical in Franklin County, really across the country. The lack of housing availability and affordability cranked up the appraisal process that would have gone up anyway, but it just, like, zoomed.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Right. It zoomed it. But, of course, let's be honest too. All the tax breaks going to places like Intel and the place down in, in Lockbourne that that's gonna make drones supposedly, and all the, you know, the tax breaks that are in just in Downtown Columbus. These apartment complex and condo complexes downtown were given ten year tax abatements. When corporations aren't paying their fair share, the burden is passed on to the everyday regular homeowners.
Carol Ventresca [:And can I mean, abate we only hear about abatements with with, in the private sector? It does not happen for an individual. Yeah. I'm I could build a $3,000,000 house, and the county is not gonna give me an abatement.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:No. But it does I mean, if you're an individual who owns a condo downtown and with a ten year tax abatement, you're not paying True. You're not paying you're not paying property taxes on that Right. On on that that stuff for ten years or twenty or whatever the length of the tax abatement was for. So you, as an individual, you would benefit by moving downtown in in that circumstance Right. Because you wouldn't be paying property taxes for that.
Carol Ventresca [:You'd only be living in 500 square feet, but hey. Just Well,
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:again, that's a decision you make. Right.
Carol Ventresca [:Right.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:I mean, a lot of younger people don't need more than that. I mean, because they're never home anyhow, and they do traveling and everything else. So, but most of it is to get industries in. And and the problem is when Franklin County and and and and Central Ohio, through Morpsey and other entities, have tried to work together so they're not bidding against each other on on these projects and having one city, you know, decimate another city by just overbidding all this stuff. So it's it doesn't it's not perfect, but it's been it's been better here in Central Ohio than it has been other places, around the state because there's more of a Central Ohio community feeling here, and and everybody's trying to work together because we are gonna get so many new people in in Central Ohio. Other places, you know, some place in Toledo is bidding against some place in Cincinnati, and they're gonna out try to outbid each other, give and why the tax breaks, and that all that does is hurt individual property owner. That means that the the reason cities and counties do that is because they expect the income taxes to make up they give they give tax breaks on the property, but, of course, anybody working in that in that entity, that community, has to pay has to pay income taxes on the money they earn because they're earning that money in that county. But the Supreme Court has been a little wishy washy on that in the last several years.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:And they also you you they also figure if you have 300 people at this building, then they're gonna be spending on food and other other things. And the sales taxes that go that's spent in that county would go to that county as well. It doesn't always work out that way, but that's that's the sense. I mean, Intel the state's giving it so much money, and now Intel being, again, postponed till 02/1930 or 02/1932, or maybe we'll never see it be built. And and the deal they made, the state won't recoup any of that money because that's the deal that JobsOhio made with the state. And since JobsOhio was off limits for public records or subpoena power or even the state auditor or attorney general would even look at their books, who knows what happened? Who knows what promises they made? But I'm worried about Intel becoming a boondoggle at some point because it could just be a huge big you know, they poured all this concrete there. The the the governor said the amount of concrete they poured yesterday in the state of the state of speech, but who cares if they don't if the full time permanent jobs are supposed to make up for that, never material.
Carol Ventresca [:Well and and a lot of the intel jobs were based on the people who were building the building, not the number of people who
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:were gonna be employed. They're supposed to have 2,000 or so full time jobs there. Yeah. And all all high paying jobs, which mean lots of income tax from that entity. The but, yeah, 7,000 jobs are construction jobs that people are doing, and they're still constructing out there. I drove by it last month. It takes somebody out there to show them. But, again, those jobs are are temporary.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:I mean and if it's if the project gets shut down, those construction jobs leave automatically. So When when
Carol Ventresca [:I worked for the state, when which was decades ago, their abatements were an issue then, but they were tied very, very closely to we'll give you this much, and you have to guarantee this many people
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Correct.
Carol Ventresca [:Getting
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:They still are. But but they're not
Carol Ventresca [:being Who's watching that?
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Well, I mean, entities are supposed to watch them. I mean and and those people who don't meet their goals, what they promised, then theoretically, there's the city or entities, counties go back and recoup the money they gave because they didn't meet their goals. But a lot of times, they're renegotiating deals and Mhmm. I mean, it's it's because it's all the promise. And companies are I think they're taking advantage of it. I think they're doing it on purpose, some of them. And, you know, well, now if you don't let me I'm gonna lay off a hundred people. But if you let me keep my tax breaks, then I won't lay off this hundred people.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:It's just it's blackmail. It's corporate blackmail. And, you know, again, everybody should pay their fair share. It's not up to me as an individual to pay the more of my share than a multibillion dollar corporation who's not paying their share.
Carol Ventresca [:Right.
Brett Johnson [:Oh, for sure. Yeah. Exactly. Well, you were a member of the, legislative committee to study the issue, called the joint committee on property tax review and reform. Your January newspaper column highlighted the committee's work, however, noted a distinct lack of clear solutions. Could you talk about your view on what the committee did discover and what steps should have been taken?
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Well, I mean, we met, I think, six, seven, eight times during last summer. Heard from, I would guess, forty, fifty, 60 different experts and witnesses on it. Michael Stenciano, several auditors testified, business entities testified, township association, municipalities. They all came in and testified. And I was excited because I thought I thought that our our our duty was gonna be to come up with a couple of solutions that the legislature would have to act on last fall before the general assembly is over, and we would have solutions that most of us could agree on, whether it would be a circuit breaker or a homestead. I think everybody on the committee, maybe, except for one person, was, I think, in favor of of raising the homestead exemption because that's that's low hanging fruit. Yeah. And we thought we I thought we're gonna have solutions to those problems and have legislation come out of it that we would debate and vote on, but nothing happened.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:They put out a report, with 21 recommendations, some of which were counterintuitive to each other, as I pointed out in in my editorial. And and it it it came up with no legislation. We never vote as a committee. We never voted every other committee that I'm on. We have draft legislation. It gets discussed. We have testimony. We had all this testimony.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:We have we have a bill comes out of it. We either amend that bill or we change it, and then we vote it out of committee, and then the chamber votes on that after you know, as a as a matter of course, but we never voted on anything in committee. We did not vote on any suggestions. We had no legislation before us. Nothing came out of this as a committee for us to vote on, which is odd, and which I was disappointed in because I thought we I mean, everybody's demanding a solution to this, and we have not come up with one. I mean, there's several other there's several proposals out there. I said, my proposal, senator Craig has one with senator Blessing. There are other kind of proposals out there, but and if some of the stuff gets stuck from the budget, which which is a bad thing because it doesn't get debated as it should, and and it's the only thing in the budget, and you never know what's gonna happen.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:I mean, there are always problems that come out of it, but nothing came out of it. And even the governor yesterday in his state of the state speech never mentioned housing, never mentioned property taxes. And these are issues that are on everybody's mind right now. They they they are what that's the biggest problem in the state of Ohio right now. It's it's housing and property taxes. And, of course, the governor doesn't mention it. The legislative leadership, both, obviously, Republicans, nothing they have no solutions. They haven't come up with anything.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:And all these bills are out there, and they get their one perfunctory hearing, but they never go any farther than that. And we gotta do something. The the taxpayers are demanding it. Citizens are demanding it, but here we are. And and this has been going on for over a year, and we've had no solution to the problem. Even though some of the stuff is bipartisan in nature, that would pass overwhelmingly if we just get it out there.
Carol Ventresca [:And and, really, legislators are are famous for letting something sit forever because, eventually, it'll be replaced on the front page of the paper for some other problem, and people will forget about it. Or the other, concern that I have is the, information that is out there where people wanna get rid of taxes. Like, it's just they're going to the the taxes will poof away and all the issues that were taken care of by those taxes will poof away. Well, that that's not gonna happen. What we this is this reappraisal thing is gonna be around the corner very quickly. What does the legislators need to do?
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:I mean, like I said, we need to we need to put a circuit breaker. We need to increase the homestead exemption. We need to, you know, keep senior citizens in their homes or disabled folks or or or or veterans so they get to keep their to keep their homes by by doing something for the property taxes so they don't get taxed out of their houses. They've been that their entire lives. And we have to start making, you know, corporations pay their fair share because I guarantee you, corporations do not pay if if half the land was corporations and half the land was owned by citizens, regular owner regular property owners, the corporations are not paying their 50% their end. The property regular property owners, like myself, like both of you, are paying 56, 50 seven percent of that % instead of the 50% that that we own. So, they're not paying their fair share, and they need to. But the low hanging fruit that I think most people can agree on are the circuit breaker, are homestead exemption, are to somehow freeze taxes on, you know, on senior citizens or disabled, those with fixed incomes, and freeze their levels.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:But, again, all this also goes into school funding. Plus, as as we said earlier, most of the property taxes are directed toward public schools in Ohio, And they have to be made whole. You just can't if you can't if you cut people's property taxes, then either the state's gonna make up the money or the or the local entity has to make up money, which means more more school levies because they can't. I mean, there's a certain amount of funding, and the schools just can't stop having public schools. And this current budget, there there's $2,400,000,000 for vouchers, yet they're not fully funding public education because right now, 87% under the governor's plan, 87 to 90% of the school districts would lose money under the current plan, but we're gonna double the amount of money we're giving to vouchers. And, oh, by the way, if speaker Huffman has his way and and he did in the last capital budget, taxpayer money is being used to build private charter schools. The state last year's cap last year's operating budget raised the amount of people who qualify for vouchers from 150% of poverty to 450% of poverty. All that did it wasn't vouchers were originally set up.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:The the the the the content of vouchers was came up with, to help kids in underperforming schools be able to pay to go to the school to get better education. That was a thought of vouchers to start with. We all knew it was a farce. It was at the time, it was just to make private school operators money and made them rich, and we had the whole fiasco with ECOT and all this other stuff. All these private school owners made all this money, and the the schools didn't teach anybody anything. They didn't people weren't going to classes. They're just collecting state money on them. But when they last well, two years ago when the when the the Republicans in the legislature doubled, I mean, may state made everybody basically, everybody took those vouchers.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:What we've seen that 90 over 92% of those vouchers didn't go to kids in underperforming districts. They were people already in private and parochial and charter school and private schools. And now what all they did with these schools raise their tuition, take it just like you get more state money in. So if someone's going to Catholic school paying $5,000 3 years ago when this increase came, that Catholic school raised their tuition to $10,000 because the state was paying that whole $10,000 freight. And all it did was have tax public tax dollars support private and charter schools, which is ludicrous. And if you saw the study came out yesterday, 20% of the voucher money went to people in the 1% up upper one percentile of income in Ohio. So people that shouldn't be getting these vouchers I'm sorry. If you're making a million dollars a year, you do you're not getting state voucher money to send your kids to private school.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:You gotta pay for your kids private school yourself.
Carol Ventresca [:This has been going on since, what, 1980? Yeah. Vouchers started a long time ago.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:They did. No. No. Well It
Carol Ventresca [:was under governor governor Voinovich.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Oh, the Voinovich came after governor Celeste.
Carol Ventresca [:Yes.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Celeste was '82 to '90. So this came in nineteen nineties. Yes. Yeah. The nineties. Yeah. Because of Cleveland, basically, the failing schools in the city of Cleveland. But there was no way Democratic government would just let start vouchers.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:I I
Carol Ventresca [:Right. Right. Okay. So I know
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Oh, and by the way too, back when Dick Celeste was governor, the school funding that they went to that was the the case came after Dixess was governor. But when in the eighties, Ohio the Ohio state share of both k through 12 education and higher education in the eighties was a lot more than it is now. And so even though the Supreme Court ruled, god, what, twenty years ago in the DeRolfe case, and that we're not fully funding public schools correctly, the state has ignored that. But also higher education, when I was in school in the eighties, the state share of of the cost of me to go to college is 77%. Now it's in the 20%. That's why tuitions are so high. That's why kids are going to debt to pay for college because the state's not picking up their share, and this year, it's gonna be even they're not even getting an increase, for inflation. They're they're they're holding the funding level steady.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Even inflation has been rising. So they're agreeing percentage of the percentage of the state paid for higher education is going below is going lower now. And and so we used to lead the country in education, and now we're in the last bottom 10%.
Carol Ventresca [:And and so and the joke is that, they're gonna get their funding pulled if they don't tow the line right now when in actuality, there's not that much funding going in from Yeah. Government entities anyway.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:There is. Right.
Carol Ventresca [:Let I I wanna step back just a second because I wanna make sure I understand the funding formula with schools at the county level. When I'm paying 87% of my, property taxes go to the schools, and I'm in Olentangy School District, is part of that money going to vouchers, or is it a completely different fund? Because the way I understand it, the money follows a kid. So if the kid goes to Olentangy, Olentangy gets the money. If a kid goes to a charter school, the charter school gets
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:money. State support, That's the state support goes for the vouchers. Your tax dollars do not go for vouchers.
Carol Ventresca [:Okay.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Your property tax goes I mean, if you read your income if you read your property tax bill that says x amount of money to x school district, x amount of money to the sewer, x amount of money to this. Right. It's all broken down. It's the state general revenue fund money that used to supplement property taxes and other taxes to help the schools that is being now siphoned off to go to vouchers.
Carol Ventresca [:Okay.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:And and but, of course and and, of course, if every kid say there were a hundred kids in his school district that were on vouchers yesterday, that percent that that amount of money the state would get for those hundred kids comes out of the state funding for that. And when you increase the number of people on vouchers, the number of people the amount of money the state gets that district because of the per people say it's they say the each say the state pays a thousand dollars for each kid in the school district. So and there's a thousand kids in school district, which could be a million dollars. If you start putting kids out of the school district and that thousand dollars for each of those kids leaves, so you have 200 kids leave, you know, that's $200,000 leaving that school district to go to vouchers that the school district now doesn't have. Even though the cost of that school district haven't really changed
Carol Ventresca [:Exactly.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Because, again, these private schools don't have to take special needs kids, don't take special ed kids. They can pick and choose who they want. They can't I mean, the public schools are mandated by law. Any child in their jurisdictional boundaries, the public school has to make arrangements for. So they have to make special arrangements for, you know, mentally disabled, for physically disabled, for learning disabled, for for students who don't speak English. They have to make all those accommodations. The private charter schools don't do any of that stuff. Oh, and by the way, the charter schools aren't don't have any regulation on like the public schools do.
Carol Ventresca [:Right. And and they are not tested like the public schools are.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Complete to an interest.
Carol Ventresca [:You have no clue as to whether you're really getting a, quote, unquote, better education.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Well, all studies have shown that charter schools perform so much lower than private schools. I mean, public school private schools are so much lower than public schools. It's ridiculous.
Brett Johnson [:So we have several programs that help many Ohioans in paying their taxes, such as the homestead exemption program, which we talked about, or, property tax assistant programs in Franklin County. Are these programs or other innovative options the long term solution we need to to fix the tax system?
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:No. They're not. Okay. We have to I mean, the fact that schools have to keep going back for asking the voters to raise their property taxes for levies. Mhmm. And and last year, more than half of school levies failed. And because the state's share of the cost for publically cases going is going becoming less and less and less every year, so the schools have to make that money up. And or they cut teachers, and they cut sports, and they or they raise fees up for to participate in sports.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:They have to raise participation fees, or they cut music classes, or they cut field trips, or they cut the number of or they cut busing. That that's all what happens when and it's not I mean, these programs help individuals in the homestead and and and property taxes are to help individuals who are having tough times making their payments. That does nothing for the school district who has to if we keep cutting back the state share of public education, that's to be made up somehow, and that's by by asking folks to vote on property tax levies. And, you know, and it's tough. So the schools have to get smarter, and, but it's a double edged sword. I mean, people don't come into a community if their schools aren't good. That that's why they go to Grandview or Burlington or Right. Or Westerville or Hilliard.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:So it's a chicken and the egg. Now I think I'm encouraged by Frank by Columbus because the current three members incumbent members of the school board aren't running for reelection. We basically told them, as a party, we weren't gonna support them, so they better not run again because they're they're doing a miserable job, and we have a bunch of people that are running now that are new, hopefully, to get some new blood into that school, board, especially the way they handle the strike. And then the memo that came out about how to break up the teachers union, that doesn't go well in a city that's predominantly Democratic and progressive. When memos come up from the school board trying to ways to break up the teacher union, it doesn't go over well. And it didn't. That's why these people are gone. So, hopefully, Columbus schools can make some decisions.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:The way they handle the school closings, all that stuff was just so horrendous that, I mean, people like me just couldn't I mean, if like I said, if I get upset without having kids in the district, then that means the level of of of of discontent is is extreme, and those people don't last long. So we finally get rid of them. But
Carol Ventresca [:And, you know, some of this is also other issues and other levies. So in my little township of which for a party that doesn't believe in big government, there are 19 townships in Delaware County, which is, like, way too much government. But, it we we we voted down the fire levy. And they had just built a new building. Fire and police were together. They built a new police building. So fire got this huge building, and suddenly, the message to us was, well, we're gonna put this on the levee again. And if you don't pass it, we're closing down.
Carol Ventresca [:And I'm like, that is no way to build a constituency to to see what is what why it's needed. You have a whole building. You have you've been getting new equipment. They're getting a new huge truck that had been on order for several years that was paid for a previous levy.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Oh, yeah. It's paid for I mean, these these trucks take five, six years to build.
Carol Ventresca [:Right. Right?
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:There's only a few people in the country to build them, and there's obviously, everybody's got everybody needs fire trucks.
Carol Ventresca [:Right. But One
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:of the places to build them is actually up off of 33 just Yeah. Just north of, Dublin Exactly. Sutpen. Sutpen. Yeah. But they're they're having labor issues up there. They don't wanna pay the Teamsters Union, and so they they had a couple walkouts. I I I participated in one of them, but I don't know if they've solved it since the summer or not.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:But so
Carol Ventresca [:Yeah. But but it's it's a it's a really bad message when it's, if you have to vote for us or we're gonna close down. That makes no sense.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:But but schools can't close.
Carol Ventresca [:Right. Exactly. So Fire shouldn't be able to be able to
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:No. And listen. School districts I mean, we're not gonna get a whole because they're all intertwined. But but the less money the state gives to each district, the more they have to raise internally, and that means that means levies, which means more property tax increase because that's they can't levy schools can't levy a sales tax, and schools can't levy income tax. They can only ask for property taxes. That's that's the only that's the only outlet they have. Mhmm. I mean, a county can ask a county carries sales tax up to a maximum amount.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:They can raise income tax up to a maximum amount, but schools can only ask for property taxes.
Carol Ventresca [:So when you have constituents calling you that tell you that they can't pay their property taxes, what what advice do you give them?
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:I mean, I tell them to go check if they're obviously, all my districts, Franklin County. I tell them to go check the auditor's website because Michael said, yeah, I know there's all kind of things on his website to to help people. They're all kind of, they're all kind of groups, outside groups that help people with these things and whether it's low interest loans or or or or grants or stuff like that. And and Michael's office auditor, I should call him. I shouldn't say Michael, but auditor, has all of these things on his website. And they have been I mean, groups in Frank County have been having these meetings across the county, to help people that are having issues with this to learn learn how to help with, out paying for these things. And there are grants. Frank County does have grants, and City Columbus has grants to help that as well.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:But that's a short term fix. Right. And, I mean, again, this is Franklin County, the most, I would say, the most progressive long range thinking county in Ohio by leaps and bounds and also the county that's expect you know, one of the fastest growing counties. Lake Central Ohio is the only place growing in Ohio right now. So we are trying to we, meaning government at the local and county level, are trying to address these issues. It's not happening everywhere else. I mean, Mayor Ginther is trying to do all he can to get affordable housing built in in city of Columbus, The new zoning laws, to allow buildings uncertain corridors to be to go up. It used to be a four story minimum now maximum.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Now they go up seven, eight, nine stories on certain corridors. The Dakota Levy just passed with, with the West Broad line is gonna be the first one. One sixty one is gonna be one of these lines to, you know, streamline bus service, put their own lane in, that sort of thing. So it's basically like a it's like I mean, I always read light rail. We're the largest city in North America. I mean, in in United States without light rail, by the way. Right. But if you these buses that act like light rail, then you they're kinda trying to solve it that way.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:But so Franklin County and Columbus are doing their part. The suburbs have to start doing their part. And I I mean, I've talked to several I I told the Upper Arlington Rotary Club last summer that if Upper Arlington didn't do their part to provide affordable housing, that at some point in time, the city of Columbus was gonna say, do this or and the always the or is we're gonna turn off your water because the city of Columbus controls all the water Oh. Everybody in Central Ohio. And if some if the suburbs don't I mean, because they we it can't all happen in Columbus. Each suburban community has to do their percentage of it, help do their part, and have to allow affordable housing to be built and make some changes. But all the suburbs have to do a part or the city of Columbus is gonna say, listen. You have x amount of time to do x amount of this, or, you know, we're gonna need to turn off your water.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:We're gonna start charging you twice what you pay for it because we have because you're not doing what we're supposed to because that's why that's what's gonna happen.
Carol Ventresca [:So if somebody lives outside of Franklin County and outside of Central Ohio, there's really not a lot that we can suggest that they do if they're having trouble with their property taxes. Do they call their the local
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:They call the local county auditor or county treasurer and try to find out what what they can do.
Carol Ventresca [:And let their legislators know That's right. Where this needs to be fixed.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:And that's why this this as I said earlier, the the ability to pay a portion of your property taxes and have the rest of it, you know, be covered by the state, and the state recoups it when you sell the house is a way but we that they have state legislature has to allow counties to do that. Right. Which, again, would keep a lot of people in their homes because you figure when they die, they don't care what happens. Mhmm. I mean Right. Well,
Carol Ventresca [:it's really like Medicaid.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Yes.
Carol Ventresca [:I mean, it's like the Medicaid Yeah. Pullback where you get that money back after that person is gone.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Right. Yeah.
Carol Ventresca [:So it's it's not like it's, you know, you're creating new science here.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:But but but the state's gonna be able to say, okay. We're gonna make up this money. I mean, if you have half if you have, you know, one eighth of the properties in a county that do this and you're losing that revenue for the schools, the state's gonna make up that money Right. Until that house sells and they recoup that money. And only the state has the money to do that. Right. Yeah. So that's why they say this authorized counties that people will do that.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Again, that's but there's a solution that doesn't end up costing the state in the end because they're all gonna be made whole at some point, but we gotta do that to keep people in our homes.
Carol Ventresca [:Has has any other state, done this program?
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:There are, NCSL, National Conference State Lectures, has all the best practices, and we got they came in and testified. We have all this stuff as part of a lot of stuff comes from other states, what other states have done. Right. I mean, we're not trying to prevent the wheel here.
Carol Ventresca [:Right.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:All the stuff other states have had to deal with, and we're kinda take the trying to get the best of the best of it. But, again, my thing is we have to we have to give people relief, and we have to keep the schools public schools whole.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So so, you're saying really bend everybody's ear at any level.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
Brett Johnson [:Okay. Alright.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:Sounds good.
Carol Ventresca [:Okay. I think we've covered it. I but we always ask our guests to let us know if there are any other bits and pieces of information that we haven't covered on this topic and that gives you an opportunity to, give everybody your last words of wisdom.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:I don't know if I have any words of wisdom. But, no, I mean, it is an issue, and people cannot let their state legislators off the hook. They have to keep on them because we have to we have to do something to solve I mean, to fix this issue. And there are things I sent that are bipartisan that I've talked to several of my Republican colleagues who are all favor of, like I said, the circuit breaker, raising the homes and exemption, stuff that is low hanging fruit, that people can agree on that also keeps school districts whole, that we have to do something because we gotta, you know, we gotta stop trying to give income tax breaks to the wealthy. We gotta stop funding vouchers. We've gotta everybody I mean, citizens are affected by these property taxes, and and and we've gotta do something about it. And we also have to start realizing that housing is a huge issue. And if we want people to fill all these jobs, the governor went around the state and all these new builds and all these things that are bringing in, but we have we know the people that fill those jobs right now.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:And if we don't get people if we're not gonna be able to get people in the state of Ohio to fill those jobs if they have no place to live. Yeah. If they can't afford to live here, you can't you're not gonna move for a job that you can't afford because you can't find a house and you can't afford to live here if you do find a
Carol Ventresca [:house. Right.
io State Senator Bill DeMora [:And my colleagues don't seem to wanna think that the two of them go together. You can't talk about workforce development if you don't talk about housing and property taxes.
Brett Johnson [:Mhmm. Yeah. Makes sense. Our thanks to state senator Bill DeMora of Ohio's 25 District. Thank you for joining us. And, remember listeners, thank you for joining us as well. You're gonna find contact information and resources we discussed in the podcast show notes on our website at lookingforwardourway.com, and we're looking forward to hearing your feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes.
