Let's continue now. About two or three weeks ago, the governor vetoed some of the measures of public education here in the state of Ohio, and I think one of the vetos was over turned. The others not a man with his finger on the pulls of what's happening in New Richmond, the home of the Lions, and also Columbus is state Representative Adam Bird. And Adam Bird welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. As we sit here at two twelve pm Eastern time. What happened this morning? If anything?
Thank you, Bill. I am still in Columbus. We met at eleven am a special session called by the Speaker to consider a couple of property tax issues. You described them just a second ago at school funding issues. I think they're more properly described as property taxes. And as you know, Bill, the property tax payer all over Ohio is crying out for help. And that's what this was about today, was to bring some property tax really to to uh to own homeowners.
And what happened, goes media reporting, is that one of the three was overturned, the emergency levees. The other two not what was overturned.
There you go, So the one. The one that was overturned was the part about no new replacement property taxes, no new emergency levees, no new substitute levees. And if you're going to put an expense levee on the ballot, you cannot have carryover balance and access of one hundred percent of your expenses. So this is uh, this is
a you know, an effort. There's so many different property tax levies asks that are out there that that schools and townships and villages and so forth can ask for, and we're limiting the number of types of property taxes that you can ask for in the future.
So if someone claims we have an emergency levee, the the eers emergency levees are out.
That's right, emergency cannot use an emergency anymore. You can't use a substitute levee anymore, you can't use a replacement levy. Now I would preface also that will it by reminding you that that has to go through both chambers, and since the budget built always originates in the House, the House has to go first. We've overturned that today and so now the Senate will get together in the next couple of weeks and consider the same thing.
I would thank you and the House are not going to involve yourself in some purative act. You would have to have an understanding that the Senate's going to follow the lead of the House. Is that correct?
I think so yeah. And you know, everybody knows who their state senators are in southwestern Ohio, and I do believe they'll be considering it. I think they'll will side on the They will come down on the side of property tax payers and will decide to override the governor's veto. And you know, people are crying out on this issue. There's more left to do. Really, there is way more to do on property taxes, and we got to get to that and have some substantial conversations about property taxes.
But for today, we have taken the first small bite of the apple.
Well, the other thing is the Columbus dispatches reporting that the House that means you punted overriding vetos and two other proposals that would allow county budget commissions to lower voter approve levies and secondly, change the formula known as the twenty mil floor, which guarantees a certain amount of moneys for districts. Did you punt on those other two issues.
We did, Willie, and so they're still on the table. We're still going to consider them in the future. But and you accurately described both of those vetos. One would give the County Budget Commission the authority to reduce unnecessary excessive property tax collection, and then the other one was changing the twenty mili floor calculation. We're still going to consider that. But we wanted to get moving on this, and we could only get sixty two House Republicans in
Columbus today. Three of them were unable to be there, and and then we had a couple of no votes. So we have to be careful about making sure that we can get sixty votes in the seats ready to vote. And it takes a three fifths vote to overcome a governor veto, and that means we've got to have sixty out of ninety nine House members.
I would assume therefore the other two did not come up because of the Speaker, Matt Hoffman, who may come on with me tomorrow, didn't have the votes. Is that fair to say?
I think it's fair to say. Or we want to have abundance of caution. We'll make sure that we've got them later on when we can get a couple of more House Republicans in Columbus, and we just an abundance of caution. We knew we could get the one. We'll
come back and get the other ones later perhaps. But you know, right, like I said, there's that threshold of sixty out of ninety nine that have to vote for this, and there were several three Republicans that couldn't make it to Columbus today, and we'll get the other ones hopefully picked up later on. I wouldn't say that they're they're off the table, but punting them and dealing with them later. And by the way, Willie, remember the governor had sixty
seven line item vetos. We only doubt we're only talking about three of them today. There's a lot more of them that House Republicans would like to override his veto on. So we've got a lot of work to cope, and the Constitution allows us to do that for the next year and a half. Anytime during the General Assembly, we can override the governor's veto.
Did you pick this one in leadership because you knew you had the votes and this does not. But on the other hand, Adam Bird of New Richmond. This doesn't reduce property taxes presently, but it may reduce it in the future. But by overriding this particular veto, it doesn't change present property taxes at all. Is that is that accurate?
You got it though. It's not a big step, but it is a first step, and it's a first small bite at the apple, and there's more less to do. It does not reduce your property taxes yet, but it will change and perhaps keep them from increasing in the future. It doesn't mean that a political subdivision like a village, township, school, whatever, they can't ask for new moneys in the future, but we're limiting the types of levees that they can ask for and makes we want to be transparent. That's what
this is about. Transparency with voters. And you know, we can come pick up these other line night and veto's later in the General Assembly and maybe as early as this coming fall.
Why not do them all together in September? You're not going to meete again, I guess until after Labor Day. You want to wait and do all three together.
Well, I think the plan on that really is because a bill does not become long until ninety days after it has the required signatures on it. And so you know, if we get this done, we've got it done today. If the Senate comes back and gets this done at the end of July or beginning of August, that the ninety day window would start August, September, October, and then that give you November and December to make sure that it was in place for the January twenty six fiscal year.
So that's why we come back and do those now, and hopefully we'll get some more property tax issues in the future. It's pretty important. And you know there's another there's several house builds that we're considering that would really limit property tax growth. One of them is House Bill one eighty six, which would limit property tax increases to the rate of inflation. And I think property tax payers
would greatly appreciate that, especially light Willie. You and I talked before about the abolition of property tax movement that's coming in Ohio.
If that happens, all hell breaks loose. So the goal, I think of Matt Hoffman and others the Governor included is to try to slow down the momentum for the six hundred thousand signatures because if that thing gets on the ballot, I guess it won't be on this November, maybe in May or November of next year, all hell's going to break loose because the voters of Ohio will vote to eliminate the property tax in which you got a problem.
Well, I think you're reading of the situation is that on Willy it didn't get the requisite signatures, didn't make it for the November twenty five ballot, But they've got another three hundred and sixty five days to collect signatures. There may be a wealthy benefactor at some point that chips in and tries to help with the signature collection to try to get it on the ballot in November
twenty six. And my reading of that really is is similar to yours that if that gets on the ballot, that there will be a lot of taxpayers that say, yes, I want to eliminate my property taxes. And when that happened, we're going to have to find a way to transition some of these services to another form of tax if. I don't know that the state of Ohio would pick up that bill, but we would allow local entities to increase their income tax or increase their sales tax to cover that difference.
And that would be difficult. I've spoken to some township officials who currently don't have the power to enact an income tax. One of the glories of living in a township, as you may know, is there's no township income tax. One of the reasons I moved to a township is because I wouldn't have to pay two percent income tax. The idea of residents in a township voting for the first time ever in Ohio to have an income tax would be an into fadda. That would be a problem.
Well you know, okay, so yeah, people don't like income taxes, but they don't like property taxes either, Bill, and so you know, there's got to be a transition because there are some necessary services that your county provides, that your township provides, what's your village is to provide, and inner cities, and so it would if left up to the local entity, the local voter can decide if they want those services
or to what extent they want those services. How much are they willing to provide because most people, especially I would say in a place by Campbelton County, they're paying I don't know, maybe close to ten thousand dollars a year on their proper be taxes more and more, you know, more more, Yeah, So you know it's it's transitioning, Ohio. If that's what's required, if that's what the voters demand come November twenty six, then we've got to find a
way to transition from a property tax to something else. Well.
The fairest tax is a sales tax. It's paid for by Kentuckians and Hoosiers as well as Buckeyes. We get the benefit of them using Hamilton Counties roads and bridges. They pay the sales tax plus. As an American, you decide whether to pay it or not. I decide it may be a difficulty to buy a car that you can get one in Covington as well as in Cincinnati. Of course you have to register it here. Maybe people
become more residents of other states. But I would decide whether to pay a sales tax based upon my volition to buy an item. When it comes to income taxes or real estate taxes, I really don't have control over that because I have to live somewhere. And as far as income taxes, very fortunate to have a nice income, but I pay tax on that I don't mind paying taxes, which are rents paid to live in the greatest country
in the world. That's fine with me. In fact, when it comes to the property tax, I'm very likely to vote no. I do not want to get rid of the property tax because it is a tax. What we need is reform of the property tax, not the elimination because it would mean the only way to get money then would be income taxes or grossly increased sales taxes. Either you or maybe Matt Huffman told me that if you had to have a sales tax to take the place of the property tax, it'd be twenty percent.
Yeah, I don't know if it's going to be that much or not. I would depend upon that local government how much they're spending, and it would depend on how much the local board, whether it's commissioner, city council, whatever, would decide to put on the ballot. But yeah, I mean, the sales tax is another stool legg in the stool, and other other states are doing a lot more sales tax than Ohio is, and so it would be up to the taxpayer to decide if they want to abolish
property taxes. In November twenty six and it makes it. And then how to replace that would be up to the local governing.
But it'd be difficult to pass in a township income taxes. That would be impossible. That would be a fool's errand and so I would hope that the property taxes actually on the ballot, numerous organizations would come together and say, this is the impact of your vote. All of us want to pay as low taxes as possible, but damn it, we need schools, we need police, we need fire, we need road repair, we need the basics of government. In Ohio, it's handled at a low cost compared to other states.
And I just hope that the voters understand if you eliminate property taxes, the schools need a new funding mechanism. And I can't imagine the city of Maderra, for example, which I think is a one or one and a half percent income to go to a four percent income tax, or to go to a county wide twenty percent eighteen percent sales tax would be confiscatory. But I will see
what happens down the road. You're predicting you're going to vote again and on these other two proposals to limit it, and then We'll see what happens, you know, Adam Bird of New Richmond. I always say we get the government we deserve, and at times that concerns me greatly. But Adam Bird, good luck to you. We'll see what happens down the road. Thanks for reporting this to the American people.
Absolutely, Bill, it's an honor to be with you again and again. We're what we did today trying to protect the rights and the values of property tax payers who we are hearing from in great numbers. And yes, you make some great points. So we've got to make sure that we're funding government of all kinds. We want to have the services that we have and finding the fairst way to pay for those with all of the different people that would be benefited by That's that's where we've
got to go. We've got a lot of work to do on This is State Rep.
Auten Bird, thanks for coming on this afternoon, and God bless you and God bless America.
Thank you, Thank you, Bill.
God let's continue with more. There you gave it. You know, it's one thing to live in the city of Madeira and to pay large, high property taxes for schools that are functional, sometimes in the top five in the state of Ohio. Madeira schools. All right, You pay a lot of money and you get a lot of result. To live in the city of Cincinnati and pay higher real estate taxes than in the city of Madeira and not be able to send your kids to the schools that
you pay for because they're so bad. That's another issue. Let's continue with more. We never stop. We simply continue. The river keeps on rolling on news radio seven hundred ww