Property tax repeal would harm students in every school district

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 each district’s total pupil operating expenses for Fiscal Year 2025 to the real property tax charged for Tax Year 2024, which is collected in 2025. (A full methodology is provided at the end of this brief.) We found that schools across the state depend heavily on the tax.

This is especially true of “suburban” and “wealthy suburban” districts.[2]  Twenty-four of the 50 districts where the property tax pays for the largest share of expenses — at least 74% — were classified as wealthy suburban districts; another 18 were suburban districts.

Other types of districts also heavily utilize the property tax to cover school costs. Some 52 of 123 “poor rural” districts relied on property tax for at least 30% of expenses, while 32 of 110 “small town” districts relied on them for at least 50%. The biggest city school districts were all above the state’s median of 36%: Columbus, at 48%; Cleveland, at 39%; and Cincinnati, at 50%.  

Individual districts’ reliance on property taxes for school costs vary a great deal, and depend on factors ranging from whether a new levy had recently passed, to changes in valuation and the district’s share of commercial, industrial and utility property. For instance:

• Ohio’s district with the highest share of total pupil operational funds generated by the property tax is Danbury Local, which covers the Marblehead area. With its vacation homes, it has relatively high property values compared with other districts; and recent reappraisals drove them even higher.
• Mayfield City Schools — which cover Highland Heights, Mayfield Heights, Mayfield Village, and Gates Mills — ranks second. Voters there approved a new levy in November 2024 that likely contributed to its ranking.

These figures don’t include tangible personal property tax paid by public utility companies, which would continue even if the property tax amendment were approved, nor does it include school district income taxes. However, statewide, these are secondary sources of local revenue. 

To calculate the share of expenses real property tax covers, we started with the Department of Education & Workforce’s Fiscal 2025 Cupp Report for each district, available here. We multiplied the total operating expenditure per pupil by the average daily membership. We then used real property taxes charged for current expenses, based on the Ohio Department of Taxation’s SD-21 report, available here, excluding amounts for joint vocational school districts. We did not adjust for the property tax rollbacks and homestead exemption, reimbursed by the state. While those funds reduce the share of tax paid by local taxpayers, it’s impossible to say what their status would be if the constitutional amendment is approved.

Clearly, property taxes are essential to public schools across the state — a huge consideration as leaders of the property tax repeal effort announce whether they will submit signatures to get their proposal on this November’s ballot.

Methodology

Property tax data was gathered from the Ohio Department of Taxation’s SD-21 report for Tax Year (TY) 2024, from the ExJVS24 worksheet, which excludes joint vocational school operating levies. These taxes were collected in 2025: the first half early in the year and the second half in July.

Total pupil expenditures were gathered from the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce (ODEW)’s Fiscal 2025 Cupp Report, by multiplying total operating expenditure per pupil by average daily membership. Expenditures occurred in State Fiscal Year 2025, which ran from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. While time periods for property taxes charges and expenditures are not precisely the same, they are the closest alignment possible from available data. Median Income by District was pulled from the Fiscal 2025 Cupp Report and covers TY 2023. ODEW School District Typology, explained here, was used for District Type, using a 2021 (unpublished) update.

Legislative Service Committee (LSC) data has shown that Tax Year 2024 school district real property taxes totaled $13.61 billion. This figure includes $1.44 billion in real property taxes for bond issues and permanent improvements, and $513 million in real property taxes for joint vocational school district (JVSD) operating expenses. Our analysis does not include adjustments for property tax rollbacks and the homestead exemption, which are reimbursed by the state.

Acknowledgement

Howard Fleeter, Matt Bunting, and Aditi Srivastava assisted in producing this report.

[1] Full data was not available for the following five school districts: Kelleys Island, Middle Bass, North Bass, Put-in-Bay, and College Corner Local School Districts. They are not included in this analysis.

[2] The The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) classifies school districts into eight typologies, which is what is used for this analysis. District typologies are included in the accompanying map and tables.