Ghiz on City Property Tax Rollback

In response to a recent article in the Enquirer which noted that the City's property tax rollback would only amount to about $1.00 per $100,000 value of home, I felt I had to explain my stance on why we should continue rolling back property taxes for homeowners. I will attempt to make this as brief as possible.

First, Cincinnati, because it is located in Hamilton County, has a total of 14 taxes levied against each property: CPS, City, County, County voted bond debt, Drake, Indigent care, Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Park District (county), crime information center, senior services, the zoo, and the museum levy. The city tax is 1 of 14.

A small break for our property owners is small, and I concede that fact. However, it is a dollar which that person may use to support a continuation of our zoo or museum levy, or one of the others of his/her choice. Critics say that the only people getting a break on this rollback are corporations. I agree they get the biggest break on the city's property tax, but frankly, they are carrying our zoo, museum, children services, senior services, mental health, mental retardation, and school districts. Corporations are not exempt from these levies. In most cases, they underwrite the campaigns for these levies, donating thousands of dollars for effective campaigns to be run, all the while knowing it will cost them a bundle. Because of their value, they keep these different institutions and services alive, not the Cincinnati homeowner. Not to mention the fact the corporations provide jobs and economic development to our core buisness district, when they could easily move to Blue Ash where their earnings tax would be at 1.25% and not 2.1%.

Most homeowners in the City struggle each day to remain here. It is far cheaper to move to the outskirts of town where the crime rate is lower, the school system is better, and the property taxes are far less than in the City. Yet these people stay here because they grew up here or moved here by choice. They deserve a slight break for the simple fact they aren't fleeing the area.

And to the argument that the city could earn $224,000 if we eliminated the $1.00 tax break we give homeowners, I say no. I can assure you the City will not use that money to retire debt or to put in our reserve fund. It will be spent the second it hits our books. It will add a program we cannot carry for the moment, and in another few years, we will end up eliminating that new program.

Second, Cincinnati has the highest earnings tax of the three largest cities in Ohio: Cleveland and Columbus are at 2.0% earnings tax, ours is at 2.1%. Neihboring cities, Blue Ash, Mason and Norwood all have lower earnings taxes. It is an absolute miracle that we can keep corporations in the downtown Cincinnati area. At least once a year there is some fight to get or maintain a business that sees the value of being outside of Cincinnati.

It is time we all stop shooting ourselves in the foot. Stop this exhausting argument over how nominal a tax break we give our propertyowners each year and what great things we could do with the money if we had it. I for one would rather have that dollar or two to put toward the renewal of the mental health or senior services levy, or even to donate to charity.