The potential impact of abolishing property taxes in Ohio

A growing number of citizens are supporting a proposal to abolish property taxes in Ohio.

This would result in lawmakers being forced to find alternative sources of funding for public schools, law enforcement, emergency services and local governments. 

21 News spoke with Mahoning County Commissioner Geno DiFabio to discuss the impacts of this proposal if it were to go through. 

According to DiFabio, "The townships will have to go away." This is because local townships' sole source of reliable funding is property taxes. Without them, townships will not be able to provide the daily services that they do for their communities. 

But this doesn't mean that DiFabio is against the idea of cutting property taxes. He says that property taxes are a major concern among the county commissioners and claims that many seniors have approached him, telling him that they can hardly afford the taxes on their homes.

"Everybody wants to get rid of property taxes. Of course, of course, everybody wants that. Nobody knows how it's gonna be fixed, but they'll figure it out. I want people to start figuring it out," DiFabio says. 

DiFabio believes that the most likely solution lies in alternative funding for public schools that, as he describes, get the "lion's share" of township property taxes. 

"If the state can figure out how to fund the schools other than property taxes, that would more than cut property taxes in half... But I don't think there's any heart, desire, or angst in the state to do that," says DiFabio.