Many Ohio counties are already in the process of developing valuations for countywide reappraisals or triennial updates. Soon these counties will be publishing, mailing or providing notices of property assessments as required by Ohio law. Ohio Revised Code 5715.17 provides that counties must give notice that valuation revisions have been completed and are open for public inspection. Counties generally have a fixed window in which to operate until values are frozen and must be contested by a complaint filed with the county’s Board of Revision. Taking advantage of the informal process is often the best way to handle issues with valuations.
Prudent property owners should review the assessments and the assessor’s property information for correctness and address any discrepancies with the assessor informally within the time frames allotted by each county. For real estate and financial service professionals, reviewing assessment notices with clients is a great opportunity for a strategic discussion. Counties value thousands of properties each year and necessarily cast a broad net; property owners have an interest in performing a review of their assessed property value in comparison to their neighbors and similar properties.
Value Evaluation Nuances
In Ohio, there are several nuances to consider in evaluating property tax values. First, it is important to understand that it is the market value of the fee simple interest that is assessed. Next, Ohio exempts personal property and business fixtures from property taxation. Accordingly, portions of buildings, structures, and improvements that are specially designed, constructed, and used for the business conducted in the building, structure, or improvement, including, but not limited to, foundations and supports for machinery and equipment are property tax exempt business fixtures. Exempt personal property is present in many buildings, especially hotels, manufacturing and processing facilities, convenience stores with fuel service, apartments, and intensive medical care facilities. Lastly, Ohio real property must be valued at its highest and best use for taxation purposes.
A listing of counties updating values by form of valuation update for tax year 2026 impacting taxes payable in 2027 follows:
| Tax Year 2026 Reappraisal Counties | Tax Year 2026 Triennial Update Counties | ||
| Ashland | Ashtabula | Auglaize | Clinton |
| Athens | Butler | Darke | Defiance |
| Clermont | Fulton | Delaware | Franklin |
| Greene | Knox | Gallia | Geauga |
| Madison | Montgomery | Hamilton | Hardin |
| Noble | Summit | Harrison | Henry |
| Wayne | Jackson | Licking | |
| Mahoning | Mercer | ||
| Morrow | Perry | ||
What Is a Mill Anyway?
A mill is one-tenth of a cent, $0.001, or 0.1% of $1. The term is archaic in origin and is used in Ohio along with the statewide 35% assessment ratio as tools to stay within Ohio constitutional requirements and manage public perceptions and expectations related to property taxes. The effect of the usage of mill and assessment ratio terms in Ohio is that public officials have to explain the impact of property taxes as a portion of every $1,000 of a property’s value, notwithstanding that there are different mill rates for different types of property. Homeowners vote, so usually property tax levies are explained in the context of home value; never mind that levies imposed on commercial properties are routinely higher.
Property taxes also support a number of different jurisdictions: school districts, municipal governments, counties, park districts, community colleges, and ports – it is a rare election cycle where some unit of government is not seeking a property tax increase. Taxes are then presented in one or two lump sums, rather than taken out in small bites like income or sales tax. Between the need for regular asks, the opaque calculation, and the large lump sum collection, it is no surprise that the public’s opinion of property tax has continued to sour.
Property Tax Legislative Updates
House Bill 124
Tax year 2026 is the first tax year impacted by the passage of House Bill 124, which impacts property tax sales assessment ratio studies. To summarize, the bill requires the Tax Commissioner to use a representative sample of arm’s length property sales within the past three years submitted by county auditors or fiscal officers, rather than the Tax Commissioner selecting samples independently. If the Tax Commissioner determines that a sample is unreasonable or unlawful, the Tax Commissioner may appeal the county’s sample to the Board of Tax Appeals (BTA). Under prior law, the Tax Commissioner selected the property sales data from each county, which sometimes led to publicized disputes with county auditors.
House Bill 129
Recently enacted House Bill 129 impacts Ohio’s steadfastly esoteric property tax funding mechanism for public schools and is also effective for tax year 2026. HB 129 modifies the 20-mill floor calculation for school districts and adds certain fixed-sum levies to the floor. While the bill impacts property tax revenues to school districts, according to the Ohio Legislative Service Commission (“LSC”) it has no effect on the state’s current formula for funding public schools. The LSC’s HB 129 Fiscal Notes analysis notes that the bill’s intended effect is that it slows the growth of school district property tax receipts. Statewide, the “slower annual property tax growth resulting from the bill will curtail school district revenues by approximately $162 million in TY 2026, $223 million in TY 2027, and $224 million in TY 2028.”
House Bill 309
House Bill 309 is another piece of legislation tweaking Ohio property tax oversight powers belonging to county budget commissions (“CBCs”). The bill changes the authority and rules for CBCs regarding real property tax levies. According to the LSC, HB 309 “allows a CBC to reduce millage on any voter-approved levy, excluding debt levies, if the CBC determines the revenue is ‘unnecessary or excessive’”. Unnecessary collections subject to CBC adjustment are those defined as those beyond the reasonably anticipated financial needs for the specific purpose of the tax after accounting for current fund balances, projected expenditures, and other available funding sources. Excess collections subject to CBC action are those in an amount or a rate that exceeds what is required to provide services at a level that is consistent with statutory obligations.
House Bill 335
House Bill 335 is another enacted bill impacting property tax revenues to local governments. Primarily, the bill limits the ability of taxing authorities to generate increased revenue from levies within Ohio’s constitutionally mandated ten-mill (1%) cap on unvoted property tax levies. Statewide, the LSC’s Legislative Budget Office estimates that the bill will result in a revenue loss to county governments, school districts, townships, municipalities and special tax districts between $120.5 million and $135.0 million in tax year 2026. The bill’s revenue losses from inside millage are projected to increase to between $195.0 million and $250.0 million in TY 2027, and between $305.5 million and $378.0 million in TY 2028.
House Bill 479
Passed by the General Assembly, but subjected to some line item vetoes by the Governor, House Bill 479 appropriates $350,000,000 from the Property Tax Relief Fund to reimburse local governments for a one-time tax credit benefiting homeowners receiving homestead exemptions. Ohio homestead exemptions reduce property tax burdens of qualified senior citizens and permanently and totally disabled homeowners, disabled veterans and surviving spouses of public service officers killed in the line of duty, by exempting a portion of the market value of their homes from taxation. The bill modifies the calculation of the homestead exemption to increase its benefit as well.
Contact
To discuss further, please contact KJK attorneys Richard Morehouse (RAM@kjk.com) or David Ebersole (DME@kjk.com).