May 16, 2026
Climbing property taxes can mean the difference between staying or selling for businesses and homeowners, and while rates have been trending upward across the country at a faster pace than inflation (1), leaders in some states are pushing for the opposite — up to and including nixing the tax altogether.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is among those moving to eliminate property levies for long-term residents, which is fitting given that the Baby Boomer demographic has been particularly frustrated with their tax bills as of late, and Florida now has the second-highest proportion (2) of seniors in the U.S.
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After passing reforms to greatly reduce property fees last year (3), Montana is now considering multiple proposals (4) to further alleviate the burden with caps on annual increases. Recent initiatives out of Kansas, North Dakota (5), Pennsylvania (6), Georgia (7), Oklahoma (8) and Illinois (9) echo the movement to either lower or completely abolish the tax amid cost-of-living challenges.
The Committee to Abolish Ohio Property Taxes (a.k.a. Ax the Tax Ohio), a citizens' organization, has been successful in thrusting potential reform of the state's tax system into the spotlight ahead of midterm elections.
"Private property ownership is the foundation of freedom and liberty for all Ohioans," said committee founder Brian Massie in a May 4 meeting (10), adding that home ownership in Ohio has become "merely an illusion" with current prices (11) and tax rates. "We no longer want to be just renters from the government. Any tax causing a citizen to become homeless is immoral."
The group has now gathered around three-quarters (10) of the 413,488 signatures it requires by July 1 to land its cause on this fall's ballot. But, as appealing as the concept may sound to homeowners, opponents (12) have been quick to highlight what they see as disastrous side effects of such sweeping, "draconian" (13) changes.
The downsides of cutting property taxes
Property taxes divert some $800 billion (14) annually to local and state governments. They help support schools, infrastructure, community services and more (15). Obviously, then, any jurisdiction aiming to withdraw the revenue source needs to considerably supplement their funding stream via other sources and possibly perform cutbacks in other areas.
Most of the aforementioned motions offer alternative substitutions. In Kansas, a new retail surcharge (16) would make up the difference, while North Dakota's government would tap into its Legacy Fund of oil and gas tax revenue (17).
The outlier is the Ohio proposal, with Ax the Tax members, according to local news outlets (18), of the opinion that replacing the lost revenue is not their responsibility. In their eyes, removing property tax would not present an income problem, just an allocation problem, though it is estimated that 65% of local government revenue (19) comes from the source, to the tune of $24 billion total per year statewide.
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"[Politicians] would be forced to reorder their priorities and cut spending, and there would still be too much money," said one county commissioner (18) at the group's meeting earlier in May.
One difficulty that this or any similar amendment out of Ohio in particular poses is that cuts would need to be made on a county-by-county basis, as there is no state-level property tax. Of course, some citizens have serious worries about impacts to essentials like emergency services and are wary (20) of facing some new fee — or just higher income and sales taxes — to offset costs down the line.
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Where things stand in Ohio now
As the committee works to amass more signatures before the summer deadline — with an ultimate goal of 620,000 (21) to ensure a buffer — State Representative Mark Hiner has put forth a tamer bill (22) to omit owner-occupied primary residences from land levies.
Ohio residents have faced double-digit property tax spikes (23) of up to 30 to 35% (24) in recent years due to escalating home valuations. These have led to a group of new bills, (25) implemented in March, that offer more generous tax credits and restrictions on certain non-voted taxes.
Meanwhile, the senate is mulling over a further limit on property tax increases (26).
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
CBS News (1),(7); Population Reference Bureau (2); Montana Governor's Office (3); Montana Free Press (4); North Dakota Monitor (5); Local 21 News (6); Ballotpedia (8); Central Illinois Proud (9); YouTube (10); The Columbus Dispatch (11),(13); Ohio Office of Budget and Management (12); Eye On Housing (14); Tax Foundation (15); KCTV5 (16); Associated Press (17); Geauga Maple Leaf (18); Butler County Auditor (19); Reddit (20); Signal Ohio (21); Ohio House of Representatives (22); Axios (23); Ohio Capital Journal (24); Vorys (25); Oklahoma Voice (26)
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Becky Robertson is a senior staff reporter with Moneywise and a lifelong writer. Along with years in the journalism industry at outlets such as blogTO and Quill & Quire, she's participated in writing residencies at the Banff Centre and Writing Workshops Paris. With 33 countries visited, she finds travel to be one of her greatest inspirations.
