Ohio's Property Tax Spark Ignites Medina County
The Budget Commission's Rock and Hard Place
There are many consequences to the economic lockdowns of 2020, none of them are good, but some are more destructive than others. Among the worst is the price inflation induced by panicked politicians who wrecked supply networks over a virus from Wuhan, China.
Including Governor Mike DeWine. Not only do these effects multiply quickly, one of those is a sharp increase in property tax bills to homeowners from their market value adjustments. In other words, a windfall for municipal government bureaucracies.
To alleviate the pressure on homeowners in the State of Ohio, the governor signed House Bill 186 in November 2025 with full effect on March 20, 2026:
To amend . . . the Revised Code to authorize a reduction in school district property taxes affected by a millage floor that would limit increases . . . according to inflation, to modify property tax reductions for residential property, to modify the process for certifying property tax abstracts, and to make an appropriation.
This appears to be needed leadership to address a significant problem that affects millions of Ohio taxpayers. After all, the lockdowns were arbitrary and its price inflation permeates everything.
But how will these property tax reductions be enforced - and by whom? This is where House Bill 309 comes in: “To amend . . . the Revised Code to modify the law governing county budget commissions and property taxation.” In fact, there were a total of five bills passed and signed by DeWine that gave local authorities the power to make these determinations for public school funding in their jurisdictions. What could go wrong?
Just ask the Medina County Budget Commission. Leading the way for Ohioans, the commissioners were set to vote on March 25th for almost $7.5 million in claw backs from three county school districts. This was after more than $500 thousand in reversals for a fourth district. In essence, $8 million kept in the hands of those who earned it and $8 million less for these four school systems.
Clearly, I am in favor of money remaining in the hands of its rightful owners and privately funded education, but this essay is about the municipal financial crisis and its root causes. And in the case of the Ohio property tax reform movement and county budget commissions, the Cleveland Plain Dealer gives it fair treatment:
Supporters say the changes protect homeowners from unpredictable tax spikes. But school leaders and policy analysts say lawmakers provided little clarity about how county officials should determine whether a district is collecting “too much.”
To say there is little clarity is an understatement. The Ohio Legislature and Governor did what politicians do - they declared victory by passing a bill that only passes the buck. As a result, the Medina budget commissioners had to adjourn their meeting of March 25th when, according to the cleveland.com report, a letter was presented by an attorney for a local school district:
The letter made several claims: State law requires budget commissions to certify tax rates by March 1 — a deadline the board missed. The commission cannot apply HB 309 this year because it became effective after the deadline.
How did the Ohio Senate, Legislature and Governor miss this? And why are property taxes being singled out for reform instead of the state income tax? Go figure.
It’s easy to blame inept politicians for their incompetence. Or managing the complexity of their arbitrary whims that we must obey or face retribution. But this is also a good time to look inward and consider this comment from a Medina school superintendent:
They are taking away the will of the voters. So, three people on a budget commission have now said, we don’t care about the majority of people in that district effectively by removing their will as voters.
He is proposing democracy. He is defending majority rule for voting away the property rights of the individual. He is denigrating the process of a representative republic. This is what authoritarians do in quasi-free societies. Chip away at rights and liberty, all in the name of “the common good.” And as it was reported on March 30th, the school district representatives won this skirmish:
They abandoned the vote after receiving a letter . . . stating that the commission blew a state-mandated March 1 deadline to approve the taxes and rates for each district in next school year’s budget . . . the missed deadline would render any action they took after it legally void.
So far, we have the Ohio State Legislature passing the buck, the Medina budget commissioners holding the bag, the school districts pressuring the county auditor to loot the inflated property valuations, the superintendents demanding democracy over rights, and no one addressing the root causes of any of this, except here:
As understood and explained by Moses in The Municipal Financial Crisis, the solution to the problem lies in the decision-making standards determined by the legitimate purposes of local government. And that begins with understanding the nature of government, the nature of its constituents, and the nature of its benefactors.
Accordingly, no conversation about the nature and purpose of public schools is complete without a detailed examination of teachers’ unions, the pedagogy imposed by state teacher’s colleges, and the size of each school district’s administrative staff. More broadly, there must be a defined and delimited purpose for all government activity. Why? Because its employs the group force model - and does it poorly:
The lack of statutory guidance has also frustrated members of the budget commission, who have acknowledged publicly that lawmakers put them in the position of interpreting an undefined standard with significant financial consequences for schools and taxpayers.
To conclude, three cheers for Medina County’s leadership role in this badly needed - throughout Ohio and America - tax reduction debate.