“I think it’s obvious we’re never going to get enough votes to do what we need to do, with special interests and all the rest of that stuff,” Dixon said about the recent failed attempt by the Ohio House to override most of the governor’s property tax budget vetoes. “Is there a way that we can craft a constitutional amendment from our perspective that makes sense. Let’s push our constitutional amendment forward, something that doesn’t blow up everything, but gives us the basic fixes we need.”
He said he has talked to the people at Citizens for Property Tax Reform — the grassroots group from Cuyahoga County that is attempting a constitutional amendment to eliminate property taxes entirely — and he doesn’t believe they have the organization or resources to get the measure passed, “but we have, we can get the resources to push this constitutional amendment if we craft it our way, there’s a lot of people that will put a lot of money into making it happen.”
Dixon told the Journal-News after the summit he plans to meet with County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser to find the correct people who can help craft a ballot question that would ask for support to cap but not eliminate property taxes, “it gets them reduced and then it gets a cap and there’s going to be something for seniors.”
Citizens for Property Tax Reform has been gathering signatures statewide since May and were hoping to be on the Nov. 4 ballot, but failed to gather the required 413,487 valid signatures — the same number Butler County would need from voters in 44 of the 88 counties — they needed by the July deadline. They are still passing petitions and shooting for the November 2026 ballot.
Beth Blackmarr, the spokeswoman for that effort, said “bully for them” when this media outlet told her about the potential competing ballot question.
“That’s okay, listen more choice, why does that hurt,” she said. “We’re going to get something out of this one way or another. Bully for them, we’ve got to do something for people.”
Of their effort she said “momentum is growing” due to all the signing opportunities at county fair and other events and “word is we have reached our minimums in several counties, we need to far surpass that but minimums have been reached.”
Totally eliminating property taxes — which pay for essential local services like police, fire and schools — would be a disaster, but Blackmarr has repeatedly said this wouldn’t be necessary if the state legislature had passed meaningful reforms. She has suggested sales and income taxes could be increased.
During Butler County’s summit, Rep. Thomas Hall, R-Madison Twp., said if the grassroots effort succeeds and property taxes disappear the House speaker has been “very clear” the state won’t pick up the slack. He said people need to be forewarned, “the repercussions from that would be no public safety.”
“If these groups decide to abolish property tax that is their right, and people in my district will vote for that, and if they choose to do that the state is not going to come in and save the day,” Hall said adding the state over the last few years has taken income taxes down from nine brackets to two. “Why in the world would we go back?”
Ohio Rep. Jennifer Gross, R-West Chester Twp. said the county can go the route the other group is by collecting citizen signatures or have the state legislators put the question to voters. She said all of the legislative fixes have failed thus far, but if some heavy hitters like the County Commissioners Association of Ohio back the measure there’s a chance it’ll make it to the ballot.
“If the commissioners draft a constitutional amendment and the CCAO supported it, then we have the leverage that we need to go through the state to be able to move an amendment,” she said.
CCAO Executive Director Cheryl Subler was at the meeting and basically said she and Dixon “are both saying the same thing.” The Journal-News asked her if that means the organization will back a ballot effort. She said they don’t have a position on it yet.
“We’re on the same page in we’re wanting property tax reform addressed in an urgent and collaborative fashion,” she said. “The current system is not sustainable and as we look at property reforms we have to look at both sides of the ledger when it comes to the revenue and responsibilities and the services local government provides.”
They haven’t taken a position on the other constitutional amendment issue either, because by policy they won’t until it is an official ballot question. They do oppose the provision in House Bill 335 that erases inside millage.
Dixon said he realizes he needs both the CCAO and the County Auditors Association of Ohio to make this possible. CAAO President Matt Nolan said in theory Dixon’s parameters for a ballot question align with his association’s goals.
“I think there would definitely be support, it’s just the devil’s in the details,” he said. “We’re putting something in the constitution which I never love, I don’t think the constitution was meant to be used as a tool to legislate, but we’re kind of at a point that’s what the rules are right now and we’ve got to play within them.”
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