The median property tax bill has increased 30 percent between 2019 and 2024, following a jump in property values. So it’s not necessarily surprising that proposals to limit the tax have proliferated across many states recently, in a variety of forms including state legislation and ballot initiatives.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), which keeps a close eye on state and local tax policy, has been monitoring such proposals and created a state-by-state guide to them. While some call for reforms, many go much further.
“It is a goal spreading among anti-tax crusaders — eliminate all property taxes on homeowners,” reports the Associated Press.
The idea is not so much catching fire as it is a matter of scattered activists setting fires–mostly, and perhaps unknowingly, to public goods and services in their own communities.
Some of the proposals at least make a nod toward replacing some of the revenue lost by ditching property taxes. Those concerned with the well-being of lower-income Americans have pointed to inequities baked into property taxes (particularly in neighborhoods experiencing gentrification), and some have made suggestions to reconfigure that tax structure to make it fairer. ITEP points out that, “because homes in Black neighborhoods are more likely to be over-assessed for tax purposes while being undervalued by private appraisers, property taxes have contributed to wealth disparities between Black and white Americans. At the same time, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities warns that shifting the source of revenue from property taxes to sales taxes also makes life harder for low-income families.
Creating a fair and equitable method for generating tax revenue among a mix of sources is necessarily complex and layered. Yet many of the proposals surrounding property taxes use a blunt instrument to address the issues: simple elimination of a revenue source by which many public goods and services are funded without a plan to replace or reassign the source.
A ballot proposal in Ohio currently collecting signatures is about as blunt as it comes: “No real property shall be taxed, and no law shall impose any taxes on real property.”
Policy Matters Ohio lays out exactly what those property taxes–most of which are approved by local voters–provide. It is the main funding source for Ohio’s many townships–where a third of Ohioans live. Townships cannot levy income or sales taxes, so they turn to property taxes to support their local police, EMS services, and fire departments .
Property taxes also provide half of the state’s public libraries funding.
But most of the revenue from Ohio’s property taxes–three-fifths of it–goes to public schools and is their largest source of funding.
“Eliminate Property Taxes” makes for a popular slogan, but it doesn’t tell a fraction of the real story.
If you’re among the 90 percent of families with school-age children whose children attend public schools–or if you simply think an educated population makes for a functioning democracy and a stronger nation, make no mistake: The true battle cry of these campaigns is “Defund Our Public Schools.”
Jeff Hagan
Communications Director