It was an easy audience for Lee Fisher: about 40 senior citizen homeowners at the Kenmore Community Center.
Lee Fisher: Would you raise a hand if you own a home? Okay. Would you raise a hand if you'd like to keep owning that home? Okay. Would you raise a hand if you'd prefer your taxes on that home would go down? Well, so far we're three for three.
Governor Strickland's budget proposal calls for expanding the state's homestead tax exemption for all disable Ohioans and those over 65, regardless of income. They would be exempt from property taxes for the first $25,000 of their home's value. Fisher says counties and schools would not lose money because the state would pick up the tab.
Lee Fisher: And the way we'll pay for it is take the dollars we get from the settlement we get from the tobacco companies and converting it to a lump sump, retiring the state's debt and using the savings to pay for this property tax relief.
MU: Covert it to bonds. "Securitize" - is that the word?
Lee Fisher: Yes, the legal word is securitize. And then we part of that securitization to pay for school construction costs, the second part to retire the state's debt, and then we take the savings from the state debt and pay for property tax relief for one in every four homeowners in the state.
That amounts to more than three times the number of seniors who now qualify for the exemption. Fisher says the money would last 20 years. Also at the community center was a less than exuberant Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic who spent two years trying to reduce Ohio's reliance on property taxes.
Don Plusquellic: I wish I could have changed it. I wish I could have done more. I do believe there's hope to really - at least in this initial budget proposal that the governor has made - give some relief.
The head of the Ohio Department of Aging, Barbara Riley, says the average homeowner would save about $400 a year.
Barbara Riley: I think this exemption is vitally important to seniors. They have reached a point, many of them on fixed income, were watching their property taxes grow every year simply becomes unsustainable. We know there are stories about folks who have gone into bankruptcy or who have simply said" I can't do this anymore; I have to sell my home.
MU: Do you think it will translate into seniors being more likely to vote for school tax levies?
Barbara Riley: We certainly hope so. If you listen anecdotally you hear seniors say 'I simply can't support another mill in my tax bill.'
Carl Scarborough says he and his wife vote for school levies but their income is fixed.
Carl Scarborough: We just don't have any more to put in the pot because I've been retired for ten years and the income hasn't gone up. And it won't go up.
And Bob Wilkie of Akron is in a similar situation looking forward to a break on his property taxes.
Bob Wilkie: The homestead exemption seems to be a good way to go.
MU: Would you be more likely to vote for a school levy if you have this exemption that saves you property tax money that way?
Bob Wilkie: I hadn't though about that but I would certainly give it more thought. Yeah, that would be a possibility.
The state legislature will decide matter in budget talks this summer.