The Ohio House was set to try to override some of Gov. Mike DeWine’s 67 budget line-item vetoes—specifically, three related to property tax measures that were passed as part of the new two-year $60 billion budget. But they only took up one of them.
Rep. David Thomas (R-Jefferson) said homeowners will see spikes in their property bills again next year if lawmakers don’t override DeWine's vetoes.
“We are in a crisis and when you are in a crisis, you act immediately," Thomas said in the floor debate.
But Thomas noted this veto, which restricts the power of school districts and others to pass emergency and other kinds of levies, will only affect elections going forward, not past voter-approved levies.
"It doesn't decrease funding whatsoever in January," Thomas said.
Democrats, including Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati), said an override will hurt communities and schools: "The governor saw through this effort and so do we."
“Today was a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars. And people spoke for the last few weeks. The public pressure worked. It kept the majority from having the votes they needed to override two of the three vetoes," Isaacsohn said. "So we came here to vote on a veto override that will provide no property tax relief and you don’t need to take my word for it. The bill’s sponsor stood up and said, ‘This is not relief.’ And yet, we used taxpayers resources to bring us all back to vote on what was ultimately political theater."
Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said some members of the House had to go out of their way to make it to this session. Rep. Diane Mullins (R-Hamilton), recovering from being hospitalized with a stroke, made her way to Columbus to cast her vote to override the veto. Rep. Kevin Ritter (R-Marietta) had to delay a trip with his family to Italy to be able to make it for the vote. Rep. Ty Mathews (R-Findlay) had scheduled a trip to Taiwan but had to rearrange that. Other members of the House and their staffs had to rearrange vacation plans or elective surgeries.
"Today was the least inconvenient day," Huffman said.
But Huffman pushed back against Isaacsohn's criticism.
“Everybody is paid a salary to work 365 days a year," Huffman said. "They came down Sunday night and spent the night at the taxpayers paying for their hotel room and they also get paid their mileage to come down here. So I’m not sure what the waste of time or money is."
The vote to override was 61-28. The House didn't take up scheduled overrides of vetoes on county budget commissions' authority to reduce levies and on how effective property tax rates are calculated. Huffman said those will be taken up in the fall.
"It was really kind of unclear to me whether we would get to 60 votes on 55 and 65 today," Hufffman said, referring to the other vetoed items. "I think if we have more discussion, we'll come back in October. It's my expectation that we will take veto overrides on those two and likely some others also."
Huffman was critical of DeWine's vetoes and the working group he's convening to suggest ways to reduce property taxes while preserving local services, especially since a House committee has already studied property taxes.
"The legislature has studied and acted," Huffman said. He said there's no guarantee anything productive will come from it, and said he's not interested in participating in it.
"We have to have a governor who wants to do something about this. I guess maybe I'm being a little bit optimistic that Gov. DeWine actually means it when he wants to address the problem which is tax is too high, government spending is too high at the local level," Huffman said. "But we will see what they come up with."
The vote to override was 61-28. The House didn't take up scheduled overrides of vetoes on county budget commissions' authority to reduce levies and on how effective property tax rates are calculated.
Lawmakers have until the end of the two-year session in December 2026 to override the remaining 65 line-item budget vetoes. DeWine has had two vetoes overriden in the past, both in January 2024: the vetoes of the bans on gender-affirming care for minors and on trans athletes in girls' sports and the ban on local communities' regulation of flavored tobacco products. Both of those overrides resulted in laws that are being challenged in court.
