The Power Grab

The effort to abolish Ohio property taxes has failed – at least for now. The group collecting signatures to put an amendment on November’s ballot says it has fallen short of the number needed to qualify.

The group, Committee to Abolish Ohio Property Taxes or Ax Ohio Tax, had to collect at least 415,000 by July 1. Brian Massie, the leader of the effort, said they would not have enough by that date, but they will continue to collect signatures in the hopes of getting on next year’s ballot.

To analyze what happened and what happens next with the property tax fight, we turn to WOSU TV’s Columbus on the Record panel.

Democratic Strategist Brian Rothenberg, who also serves on the Norwich Township Board of Trustees, Gene Krebs from the group Better Choices for Ohio and Ohio Public Radio Statehouse Reporter Jo Ingles discussed the attempt to abolish property taxes.

Data Centers: The controversy is growing

Complicating the debate and the legislation to regulate the data center is a tax break nobody seemed to know about when it was awarded.

Back in the second term of then-Gov. John Kasich’s administration, he agreed to give big tech companies up to a 40-year 100% sales tax exemption on equipment needed to build facilities - including data centers.

Of course, data center construction has exploded and now that tax break to Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta and other companies has cost the state an estimated $2.3 billion.

Current state lawmakers who want to end or at least pare back the sales tax break for data centers are not happy. Because they can't change the agreements that are already in place.

They tried to regulate data centers this past week, but they could not reach an agreement before they left for summer recess. They likely won't take up the issue again until after the November election.

And the centers keep coming. A report this week says Ohio is in line for a mega data center. The tech news outlet called The Information reports the data center would cost a half billion dollars to build. It would be located on leased federal land in southern Ohio.

Snollygoster Of The Week

This week we give it to the Republican-dominated Ohio legislature.

Legislators apparently believe laws they pass are not good enough. In particular, the voter photo ID law they passed a few years ago requires Ohioans to show a photo ID to vote since 2023.

There’s no evidence voter fraud has been a problem. No one has seriously challenged it. But that law is not enough for Republicans in the legislature. They want to enshrine photo voter ID in the state constitution.

Lawmakers this week voted to put the amendment on November’s ballot. If voters, after showing their ID, approve it, it will be in the constitution. Supporters say the measure will protect the ID requirement from being overturned. Critics say it's not necessary. And say Republicans are just trying to boost turnout.

But for trying to enshrine an established state law in the constitution to boost turnout in an upcoming election… Republicans in the state legislature get our snollygoster of the week award.