In response to the protests of property owners, the legislature, over the last decade, has adopted several property tax relief measures.

10% Rollback: In 1971, a 10 percent across-the-board rollback on all real property tax bills, applicable annually, was enacted. This was added to Ohio’s income tax bill to win legislative support for the package. Effective 2006, House Bill 66 removed this rollback on all commercial and industrial properties, including some agricultural properties.

2 ½ % Rollback (Owner-Occupied Property): In 1979, an additional 2 ½ percent rollback applicable to owner occupied homes was approved.  You can check your property on AREIS to verify that you are receiving the 2% rollback if you own and occupy your home.  If you have any questions, please call our office at (419) 213-4442. 

Homestead Reduction: Since 1971, Ohio granted property tax relief through a partial Homestead Exemption program for low-income homeowners 65 and older. Authorized by constitutional amendment in 1970, this program was extended in 1974 to permanently and totally disabled homeowners. In 2007, the program removed the income requirements, and is now open to all homeowners 65 and older and permanently and totally disabled homeowners. Local taxing districts do not lose money as a result of the rollback or homestead exemptions. The state fully reimburses each taxing district using state tax money.

CAUV (Current Agricultural Use Value): Special tax treatment for agricultural land was authorized by Constitutional amendments in 1973. Land used for agricultural purposes may be valued and taxed on the basis of its agricultural use rather than on its “highest and best” use. This gives farmers, especially in urban fringe areas, a tax break. It is authorized in the conservation section of the Constitution with special treatment for certain forest land.

House Bill 920 (H.B. 920): The most controversial and complicated measure to limit property taxes is the use of tax credits to calculate real property taxes. It is an accepted tenet in Ohio that voter approval of a specific number of mills on the ballot is not authorization for a set tax rate into the future, but rather is approval for collecting the amount of money that the approved millage produces when voted. This view of taxation holds that property taxes should not increase through appreciation in property values due to inflation, but only through a vote of the people.

Until 1976, the Ohio legislature subscribed to a policy of reducing outside millage whenever property increased in assessed value so that only the same amount of revenue was collected as the previous year. In 1976, the legislature enacted H.B. 920, a new procedure to limit property tax growth. The new law authorized H.B. 920 credits that reduce millage rates to keep increased property valuations from producing “windfall” revenues for taxing districts.

The Department of Tax Equalization calculates the percentage reduction in voted levies necessary to provide the same number of dollars to each local government as it received the previous year from the same millage. That percentage, the tax reduction factor, is applied to each parcel of property in that taxing district. The 920 credits do not apply to revenue from the inside millage, increases from new construction, or to taxes levied to repay debt. These are the only areas of property tax revenue growth.

These credits offer relief to taxpayers by restricting much of the growth in property tax revenue from inflation. But this “freeze” causes serious problems for local governments, especially school districts, when costs continue to inflate rapidly. There is no state reimbursement for revenue not collected as a result of these credits.