Column: Butler County is unified in efforts against big tax hikes

We are in a tax crisis.

As Treasurer of Butler County, my office receives all property tax payments from our homeowners and businesses. And we also receive comments from taxpayers who come into our office, send us messages through our web site, and send us notes in the mail.

And what we are hearing is troubling.

The taxes we are collecting in 2023 reflect an increase in taxes that the state tax commissioner imposed against the protests of our Butler County auditor.

Next year, the tax bills will be increasing again. And this time it is not just the auditor who is protesting to the Ohio tax commissioner. Our Butler County elected officeholders have collectively come together to work with our legislators to find a solution. I am not aware of any other time in our county’s history when an issue has caused our officeholders to unanimously coalesce.

But fighting excessive taxation has brought us together. The county commissioners started this team effort shortly after I was appointed treasurer. And we are all on board.

However, progress in government is often slow. Our local legislators worked quickly to propose some short-term solutions to relieve taxpayer burden while more permanent resolutions to our tax crisis can be found. In essence, we tried to buy time. These efforts were not successful.

We are in an era when personal income growth is not keeping pace with inflation. Sales taxes are increasing because they are a percentage of goods that are increasing in price with inflation. Property taxes are skyrocketing due to inflationary pressures and lack of supply. This means some schools, agencies and local governments might see a windfall from their taxpayers. They might see this as good news, but Butler County’s officeholders know this is short-sighted.

The concern is that taxpayers will begin to respond. If property taxes are exorbitant, then voters may not pass levies for schools, libraries, roads, parks, mental health, senior services, children’s services and the other boards and agencies that rely on the generosity of taxpayers. People have also been known to “vote with their feet” and move out of a high tax region and into a lower tax area, which can compound revenue issues for local governments.

Taxes are only imposed by the consent of the governed, and if the governed begin to respond to crushing taxation, then we will find ourselves in a proverbial pickle. If essential levies begin to fail, those short-term windfalls will be erased. The Edgewood and Ross school levies both failed in May.

But maybe that is what needs to happen. Our Butler County officeholders and local legislators, who are all on the side of the taxpayers, represent a voice of only one of 88 counties in Ohio. It may take a few elections in which levies continue to fail for others to see what Butler County’s lawmakers already know: taxpayers need relief.

There are many solutions to the current tax crisis. But the remedy must come from the state legislature. Butler County’s legislators are working to alert their colleagues in Columbus to what is coming. They need as much help as they can get.

Anyone who is feeling the pressure of rising taxes, and little or no growth in personal income, should act now to contact their legislators to encourage their efforts on behalf of taxpayers.