CINCINNATI — As county auditors across Ohio urge state lawmakers to give homeowners property tax relief, we are speaking to some of our local representatives to see if they're doing anything about it.
There are four recommendations from the County Auditors Association of Ohio. They include: expanding the homestead program, eliminating the non-business credit and expanding the owner occupancy credit, limiting the growth in revenue received by school districts due to reappraisal changes, and creating a menu of targeted relief.
But Montgomery County Auditor Karl Keith said the Ohio Legislature's committee that looked at property tax laws and recommendations said "they really decided to do nothing, they really had no recommendations."
"It's not about how we value things; we have a tax problem in Ohio," Keith said.
Greg Romine has owned his home in Bond Hill for about 12 years. In the last two, his property taxes went from around $1,400 to nearly $4,200 a year.
"(You'll) be living there all your life and all of a sudden now you can't live there because the taxes are too high," Romine said.
Hear more about how the increased property taxes have impacted Romine here:
"I've just been so depressed right about now," Romine said. "It's just unbelievable. It's like, you can't stay where you want to be comfortable at anymore."
The 62-year-old is living on Social Security, and last year was on disability. He's also trying to remodel his place while paying more for property taxes. He's afraid he could lose his home unless state lawmakers step in to help him. We asked Romine if he's confident he will get help from lawmakers this session. He said no.
"They need to come live with us, with our salary, what we make, and then let them see if they can make it," Romine said.
We reached out to two state lawmakers Wednesday, who told us they were considering up to six bills in the House committee that address property tax relief.
Some of those bills have bipartisan support, like HB 124, which allows county auditors to consider other factors when calculating home values — not just recent home sales in the area that could drastically raise the price of other homes nearby. Lawmakers say that bill could help homeowners save hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars.
But those bills still need to go to the House floor for a vote, and then to the Ohio Senate and governor.
