COLUMBUS, Ohio - As calls for Ohio property tax reform grow, individual school levies could become a thing of the past. 

State Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-19) has introduced a bill to reshape Ohio's school funding, by replacing local school property taxes with a statewide levy of 20 mills for education and a 1.75% sales tax increase. All of the revenue generated by the sales tax increase would go towards education. Local levies for things like police and fire would not be affected.

“Given that property taxes for schools make up between 60 and 80% of the taxes in local jurisdictions, this could be a significant reduction,” Brenner told 21 News. “Most school districts, their effective millage is between 35 and 50-plus mills. So you would see a dramatic decrease in the millage that would be paid by these districts.” 

In 2024, 78% of public school districts were already on what lawmakers call the ‘20-mill floor,’ the minimum schools have to collect. Under this policy, local governments that aren’t able to garner public support for 20 mills’ worth of property taxes for their school districts can collect that money without a vote. 

However, certain levies don't count towards that minimum, so the actual taxation rate in many of those school districts is higher than 20 mills. This means even some school districts on the '20-mill floor' would see their revenue from property taxes cut under Brenner’s proposal. 

According to Mahoning County Auditor Ralph Meacham, the county now receives about $66 million per year in sales tax revenues, and the additional 1.75% in sales tax would generate about $77 million for the county’s school districts.

In collection year 2024, Meacham said schools in Mahoning County received $186.3 million, which would leave $109 million to be covered by the 20-mill statewide levy in order for the schools to not face funding cuts. 21 News asked Meacham if he believed the statewide measure would be enough to cover that amount, but did not receive a response by publication time. 

State Rep. Lauren McNally (D-59) expressed concerns about the proposal in an interview with 21 News. While she agreed that property tax reform is necessary — calling Ohio the “most over-levied state in the country” — she said Brenner’s proposal did more for “dismantling our school system funding” than helping homeowners. 

“To me, it's a prime example of the state continuing to just want to take power away from the local governments and the local residents and keep it all at the state level,” McNally said. 

“It also sounds like we're putting a hell of a lot of faith into the state that it's going to turn that money back around and give it to public schools,” she added,” because our track record … has absolutely been to take our education fund at the state and give more of it to the private, for-profit charter schools and less of it to the public education schools.”