YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Northeastern Ohio mayors sought to impress upon area state legislators the need for property tax reform that doesn’t adversely affect cities.
The effort by members of the Ohio General Assembly to reform property taxes was one of two key topics addressed during a regional meeting Thursday of the Ohio Mayors Alliance.
“As an association that represents the 30 largest cities in Ohio, we do state level advocacy on behalf of our cities,” said Keary McCarthy, OMA executive director. “It’s really important to get our state leaders and our local leaders together in the same room, having conversations about important issues that affect everyday Ohioans.”
Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said the mayors and state legislators attending the event discussed two topics primarily: public safety and the property tax issue.
“The big piece that’s out there is the property tax constitutional issue,” said Brown, one of five mayors in attendance. “Our legislators were very open and honest with us about where they’re getting the pushback from both sides. The mayors were not shy about asking how it would affect our communities. So we wanted to have this conversation.”
Much of the discussion involved ways to minimize the effect on key constituencies rather than completely eliminate property taxes. Because of increases in property values, property owners are seeing spikes in what they are paying versus when levies were approved, Brown said.
“There is a shared concern amongst Republicans, Democrats, mayors and lawmakers about the total repeal of property taxes altogether that would wipe out nearly $30 billion in revenue for schools, counties, townships, sheriff’s departments and police departments,” McCarty said.
Canfield Mayor Don Dragish said he wanted to see what could be done to assist older residents, many of whom are on fixed incomes.
Warren Mayor Doug Franklin said the mayors made it clear that they support “responsible” property tax reform, “but not at the expense of service delivery and not without some type of replacement or resolution for what the consequences will be if you remove or alter those property taxes.”
They also sought to counter the perception that property tax reductions wouldn’t have as dramatic an impact on cities as they would on school districts, townships and villages.
“It would have collateral damage to cities, because our cities are directly linked to our schools. If we don’t have a great school district, then it’s tough for us to attract and retain residents,” Franklin said. “We wanted to make sure that they understood that.”
Other mayors attending the event, which was held at the Apollo Event Center, included Steven Mentkiewicz of Niles and William Sherer II of Canton.
State legislators participating included Lauren McNally of Youngstown, Nick Santucci of Niles, Monica Robb-Blasdel of Columbiana and David Thomas of Jefferson. None of the state representatives participated in a news conference held after the meeting.
Representatives of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and Western Reserve Port Authority also attended the meeting.
McCarty was optimistic about being able to find common ground and find ways “to really bring together state and local leaders to help share information” and address property tax concerns in a way that preserves local public services. Several legislative proposals that have been offered and other local government associations have delineated options to expand the homestead exemption and would provide “certain circuit breakers” for seniors to protect them from rising property taxes.
“There are a range of options that are out there,” he said. “Part of what we did today was really try to talk about those options, try to share the perspective from the local level and continue to make sure that as the Legislature continues to think about property tax reform, we do it in a way that’s balanced, addresses the needs of citizens but also doesn’t adversely impact critical local public safety.”
The biggest part of the public safety discussion involved retention and recruitment of police and law enforcement, Brown said. He also discussed the progress that Youngstown has made in reducing crime.
“We know public safety is foundational to so many things that our cities do for economic development, creating great places to live, work and play, and so we’re going to continue to talk about the importance of public safety and the need for partnership with our state leaders,” McCarty said.
During the meeting Thursday, McCarty said the mayors discussed the work cities are doing to support public safety – usually their largest budgetary expense – not just on the enforcement side of public safety, but also prevention. This includes investments in youth programming and violence intervention work.
“These are all things that complement the critical enforcement work that our police departments do,” he said.
At the start of the news conference, Brown was sworn in as a member of the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission by Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolitio. Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Brown to the commission last week.
“I would have never thought a kid who had a dad that was in and out of prison, that I would have an impact on what that’ll look like,” Brown said.
Pictured at top: From left are Canfield Mayor Don Dragish, Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, Warren Mayor Doug Franklin and Keary McCarthy, executive director of the Ohio Mayors Alliance.