Concerns about property taxes have brought greater interest in pursuing school district income taxes (SDITs) as an alternate source of revenue for public schools. While in some districts this can be a useful alternative to the property tax, by far the main source of local funding,[1] there are reasons to
Testimony on Ordinance No. 556-2026 to the Cleveland City Council Utilities Committee Policy Matters Ohio has been receiving requests for support from residents across the state who have expressed concerns about planned data center projects coming to their communities. Leading concerns for Ohio communities include data centers’ impacts on water
District-level analysis shows property tax is critical Repealing the property tax is especially likely to harm suburban districts, according to Policy Matters Ohio’s new analysis of funding data. The brief uses the most recent available data to show the essential role property taxes played in funding school operations last year.
Ohio schools depend on the real property tax. Some 247 of the state’s 606 districts[1] rely on the tax for at least 40% of their operating expenses. This is a key reason why the proposed property tax repeal, with no replacement revenue, is misguided and destructive. Policy Matters Ohio compared
Governor DeWine’s order temporarily suspending the approval of new sales-tax exemptions for data centers is a positive step, but it does not go nearly far enough. It does not reduce the existing exemptions that allowed some of the wealthiest corporations in the world to receive about $2 billion in exemptions last year, including both state and local sales tax. They will
Gov. Mike DeWine has directed state officials to pause consideration of new data center sales tax exemption applications, following the revelation that the exemption cost the state more than 11 times the predicted amount last year. The move signals rising concern among state leaders about one of Ohio’s most costly
*CORRECTION: The headline of this statement originally overstated the amount by which the cost of the tax break exceeded the state’s forecast. The cost was more than 11 times greater, not 12 times greater. New reporting by Signal Ohio’s Jake Zuckerman reveals that Ohio’s data center sales tax exemption cost
In testimony delivered today, Policy Matters Ohio Research Director Zach Schiller urged the House Local Government Committee to strengthen House Bill 695 by broadening limits on nondisclosure agreements in data center and other economic development deals and repealing the recent change to Ohio law that shields key economic development records
Testimony to the House Local Government Committee on HB 695 Chair King, ranking member Sims and members of the committee: Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony on House Bill 695. I am Zach Schiller, research director of Policy Matters Ohio, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research institute with the mission of creating a
This op-ed originally appeared on Cleveland.com on February 22, 2026. Ohio has some of the nation’s most stringent limits on property taxes. For many Ohioans, those restrictions have kept property taxes from becoming prohibitively high. But for others, increasing property values have made property taxes unaffordable. This has led anti-tax
…or force huge tax increases & higher energy costs The property tax on land and buildings is Ohio’s oldest and largest tax. Every state has a tax on such property, called “real” property. The tax is based on the assessed value of property, determined by county auditors with oversight from
Ohio has bipartisan models for changing course on data center tax breaks
Ohio needs to curb the data-center tax break that cost $2 billion in state and local revenue last year. If the billions being given out to Amazon, Google, Meta and others can’t be easily reined in, legislators should approve other taxes to fill in for some of the losses. Recent