Numeric news from Policy Matters
~$1B: Cost of the proposal in Senate Bill 3 to “flatten” the state’s incomes tax. Sound familiar? That’s because legislators rolled out a similar hare-brained scheme in 2023. Hannah Halbert wrote about it on Tax Day that year, and we testified against its inclusion in the state budget. We’re working on a more precise cost estimate to account for adjustments in this new bill, and will make our detailed analysis available ASAP.
$820M: Cost of the property tax circuit breaker proposed in Senate Bill 22: a more targeted and effective piece of tax legislation that includes much of what Zach Schiller and Bailey Williams have been recommending for more than a year. Here’s the thing about property tax circuit breakers: They prevent property taxes from taking up too much of your income, while also ensuring schools (which rely on property taxes to educate our children) still get the funding they need. Our proposal covers people of all ages, homeowners, and renters, who pay property tax as part of their rent.
90%: Approximate share of Ohio students educated in public schools. Yet some lawmakers claim fully funding the final two years of the Fair School Funding Plan (FSFP) is unsustainable. Which is odd, because those same lawmakers managed to find almost a billion dollars to pay for private school tuition last year, mostly for households already sending their kids to private school. “In the upcoming budget policymakers have another opportunity to use our shared resources to chart a better course for the vast majority of Ohio students,” wrote Hannah Halbert in a recent op-ed.
1500+: Number of actual humans who follow us on Bluesky. Looking to break with other social media platforms? (We can’t imagine why…) We’ll be ramping up our activity on alternatives to X, so if you’re starting fresh, be sure to stay in touch!
Policy Matters is celebrating our 25th birthday! We were founded as a nonpartisan policy research organization focused on working people in Ohio, officially receiving our nonprofit status in July 2000. (That makes us a member of Gen Z, if you ask Pew Research Center, and a Late Millennial if you ask Reddit user xxjoeyladxx). We were launched by a coalition of leaders from academia, labor, business, the public sector, and the community. United Labor Agency was our first home and our very first funder.
Save the date for the evening of September 30, 2025 to celebrate with us in Cleveland. More details (including a Columbus commemoration) to come!
Watchlist
Ohio’s 136th General Assembly is in session and we’re keeping tabs on the good, bad, and ugly legislation our elected representatives in Columbus are working on. Here are three to watch. Please call or email your state legislators and tell them to support, oppose, or amend these bills.
SB 22: This bill would create a property tax circuit breaker like the one we proposed and have been advocating for. It is good, targeted policy that will help people who need it, protect local funding for schools, and cost the state less than other proposals that primarily benefit the wealthy.
SB 1: The top priority for the Senate majority, this bill threatens Ohioans’ freedom to learn in our public colleges and universities by undermining faculty unions, banning courses and trainings related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and doubling down on culture-war restrictions. It is an even uglier version of SB 83, which Ohio students and other advocates defeated last session. It should be rejected.
SB 11: This bill prohibits employers from instituting non-compete agreements, which prevent workers from finding employment in roles similar to those they leave. This is a good policy: Non-compete agreements are a manipulative tool used to restrict market competition and suppress worker autonomy.
Calls to action
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Lame duck is an opportunity for legislators to act on data centers (and more)