Our latest policy analysis looks at Vivek Ramaswamy's proposal to roll back Ohio's local property taxes to pandemic levels. In our report, we estimate the fiscal impact of a rollback using the most recent data from the Ohio Department of Taxation, including district-level data published after the DeWine administration completed its own analysis of complete property tax abolishment in February.

Key Findings:

• Ohio's local governments currently levy about $24.7 billion in property taxes each year, roughly equal to the combined total of the state's income and sales taxes. Rolling back to 2021 levels would cut that by $4.0 billion per year at today's values.

• By the time a new governor takes office and implements a budget, the gap grows to an estimated $6.6 billion per year, or about 60% of what Ohio's entire state income tax generates annually.

• About three-fifths of all property tax revenue goes to local school districts. The rollback would cut school funding by an estimated $2.4 billion per year today, growing to $4.0 billion at implementation.

• Ohio's townships, which are home to more than a third of all Ohioans, receive $1.5 billion in annual property tax revenue and have no other major revenue source. Voters have approved 3,190 levies specifically for police, fire, and EMS services that would be put at risk.

• Libraries, county health boards, senior services, and developmental disability programs depend heavily on property tax levies approved by local voters. A rollback would force cuts across all of them.

• Ramaswamy has not identified a replacement revenue source.

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