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I'm seeing a lot of folks (rightfully) shitting on the people in this article for their efforts to remove *all* property taxes in Ohio, but I want to give some further insight into things here. My mom, who is 62 and a widow of 12 years, is currently seeing a beyond massive property tax increase —

While my family grew up in a solid, upper-middle class environment, my mom was a homemaker who relied on my dad's income to support all. We were super fortunate enough to have a single-income family but after his death my mom essentially needed to live on his life insurance policy for 40+ years. —

She's been extremely diligent about living within her means and we're lucky to be smart with investments. Still, we can only realistically plan for traditional increases in cost of living and the recent Ohio property tax update is so extensive that it has thrown a lot of normal logic out the door. —

Unfortunately, due to Ohio's goofy tax structure regarding what services are afforded by different types of taxing, our public schools rely nearly entirely on property taxes. This isn't helped by the state taking public school funding and moving it to private schools for the past 10+ years. —

So does my mom promote removing all property taxes? Absolutely not. She thinks anyone who wants to do this is dumb. Still, the sudden, sharp increase in them is pushing her financially in ways she can't easily manage. I believe I'll be chipping in to pay her now $9k in property taxes. —

The property tax issue here in Ohio is a problem that was a long-time coming. It's been heavily documented how our State's approach would explode in legislatures' faces for years now and no one wanted to make changes leading up to it. We're in a situation where many seniors simply can't afford it. —