Ohio’s Republican legislators are hellbent on making sure that Ohioans pay less taxes. Who wants to pay more taxes, right? Unlike Republicans, I understand that if we want a better society it takes money to make it happen. This means either cutting spending on other programs or raising taxes. Many Ohio residents understand this. All we ask for is that our tax money is spent wisely on things that benefit Ohioans. We are willing to pay taxes to make Ohio a better place to live. That’s not the goal of Ohio Republicans. Their goal is slash taxes to a bare minimum, slashing programs and services to meet the required balanced budget.
On principle, I support doing away with ALL real estate taxes. A man or woman should be able to own their own home without fear of the government selling it at the courthouse square to pay for delinquent taxes. It sickens me when I read of a family losing their home, all because they couldn’t keep up on rapidly rising real estate taxes.
I would support the Republican plan to abolish real estate taxes, but they have NO plan to replace the income school districts and local, township, and county governments will lose if real estate taxes are done away with. I refuse to support the Republicans until they make concrete plans to replace the lost income. Simply put, I don’t trust them to do right by Ohioans.
I attended a Ney council meeting several weeks ago. It was evident that the mayor, treasurer, and council are worried about what they are going to do to replace the income they receive from real estate taxes. Sadly, this is not a complex issue. Council will be required to either cut programs/services/employees or raise taxes. This same scenario will be played out on the township and county level.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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