The property tax abolishment movement falls short, activists eye the 2027 ballot

Ohio activists who wanted to abolish property taxes failed to put their amendment on the November ballot, but said they will try again next year.

Brian Massie, a campaign leader and the co-founder of AxOHTax, recently announced that the group did not collect at least 413,488 signatures, the required minimum to put the amendment before the July 1 deadline, according to News 5 Cleveland.

The group said they planned to collect 620,000 signatures so that they would still meet the minimum requirement, in case some of the signatures would get thrown out during the state’s verification process, the news source reported.

In April, Massie confirmed that the campaign gathered 305,000 signatures, but the leader refused to say how many signatures had been collected recently.

“We thought that we would need quite a buffer,” Massie told News 5 Cleveland.

Massie also said that he and his fellow activists became very disappointed in Ohio politicians, adding that they are “declaring war on the legislators.”

“And when you’re at war, you never give the enemy any intel. Giving them information — specifically how many signatures — that’s like giving them intel,” he said.

Although lawmakers pushed Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to sign multiple property tax relief bills, some of them opposed abolishing property taxes, going so far as to urge Ohioans not to sign the petition.

“What it ends up being is a tax shell game, the biggest tax shell game you could imagine,” state Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, told News 5 Cleveland. “Because, yeah, we can get rid of property taxes. But then sales tax will have to be tripled. … Homeowners, individuals will end up, I think, paying more in tax. Just different types of taxes. And that doesn’t really solve the problem.”

Ohioans to Protect Public Services, a coalition of Ohioans whose jobs are directly affected by the potential abolishment of property taxes, including firefighters, police officers, teachers, and librarians, recently issued a statement in which the group said that the property taxes abolishment movement is “reckless,” pledging to continue fighting against the group’s becoming successful in 2027.

“Local property taxes pay for services Ohioans count on every day, including police, fire and EMS, 911, public schools, senior services, supports for children and people with disabilities, to name just a few,” Jen Detwiler, a representative for the coalition, told the news source. “Eliminating two-thirds of local tax revenue overnight does not make those needs disappear — it forces our state into impossible choices: severe cuts to local services, massive increases in sales and income taxes, or both.”

Meanwhile, Massie told News 5 Cleveland that he and other activists want to give the lawmakers a chance to redeem themselves in their eyes by introducing reforms before 2027.

“We’re saying okay, let’s give the legislators more time. And let’s see what they do,” he said.