DELAWARE — One of the most common questions residents ask is simple: Where do my property taxes go?
The answer depends on the type of tax, but for most homeowners, the focus is on real property — meaning land and buildings, not personal property like inventory and equipment.
Real property taxes fund a wide range of local services, including schools, libraries, roads, public safety and park districts. In Ohio, about 60% of those taxes go to schools.
Beyond that, the Ohio Revised Code requires a percentage of tax receipts to go to various county departments. For example, the treasurer and prosecutor offices each get 2.5% of the delinquent taxes collected to help offset collection costs.
Similarly, the board of elections receives a percentage to offset election expenses.
How much each property owner pays varies based on home value and the levies approved in their area, such as school, fire, EMS or police funding.
Understanding how those taxes are calculated can be confusing — so we’ll break it down.
First, a bit of history
Ohio has taxed land since 1803, though how it’s calculated has changed significantly over time.
In the early years, taxes were based on land quality, with rates ranging from 20 cents per 100 acres in 1803, to $3.60 per 100 acres by 1825. That same year, the state shifted to a system based on property value — a change later written into the Ohio Constitution in 1851, along with a requirement to reassess property values every six years.
Because it proved difficult to reappraise property in all 88 counties at once, the state adopted a staggered schedule in 1947.
A series of court cases in the 1960s further shaped Ohio’s property tax system, establishing several key legal precedents:
- All real property must be taxed uniformly based on value.
- Property must be reassessed regularly.
- Market value (or sale price) is the best measure of a property’s true worth.
In 1972, the Board of Tax Appeals set the assessment value at 35% of market value. It remains at 35% today.
To keep property values up to date, counties originally adjusted them every year between full reappraisals. But when values started rising quickly during inflation, the state shifted to updating them every three years instead.
Over time, other changes affected who pays what. Applying the same assessment rules to all property types shifted more of the tax burden onto homeowners and farmland.
Lawmakers also created several tax breaks: A 1971 amendment led to the homestead exemption for homeowners 65 and older, and later expanded to include people with disabilities and surviving spouses.
Other changes included a 2.5% tax reduction for owner-occupied homes and a program that allows farmland to be taxed based on its agricultural use — not its potential value for development.
Here’s how all of that translates into what you pay today.
Calculating your property taxes
The first step in calculating your property taxes is determining your home’s value. County auditors do this through six-year reappraisals and three-year updates.
In Ohio, however, you are not taxed on the full value of your property. Instead, taxes are based on 35% of that value.
For example, if the county auditor values your home at $175,000, your taxable value is $61,250.
From there, taxes are calculated using millage rates. One mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value.
For example, if voters approve a 0.68-mill levy for 911 services, a homeowner with a taxable value of $61,250 would pay about $41 per year for that levy.
Add up all the levies in your area, and that total determines your overall property tax bill.
Even if your home’s value stays the same, your tax bill can still change depending on new levies, expiring levies or adjustments to existing rates.
Proposal to eliminate property taxes
A proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate property taxes in Ohio could appear on the Nov. 3, 2026, ballot.
The initiative would prohibit taxes on real property — including land, crops and permanently attached buildings — if approved by voters.
Supporters argue the system has become too burdensome as property values — and tax bills — have risen in recent years.
But the proposal has sparked significant debate over how local governments would replace the revenue.
Property taxes account for about 65% of local government funding in Ohio and support services such as schools, fire departments and libraries, according to Butler County auditor Nancy Nix.
Eliminating them, she said, would leave a gap of roughly $24 billion statewide, including about $13 billion that currently goes to schools.
A recent study by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington D.C., found that replacing that funding with local income taxes could push rates into the double digits — and as high as 27% in some areas.
Gov. Mike DeWine warned the proposal could have immediate consequences for local services during an address at the Ohio Township Association’s 2026 Winter Conference General Session.
“If that were to happen, it would create an immediate and severe crisis,” DeWine said. “Many local services that depend on property tax funding would disappear almost overnight.”
He also noted that property taxes provide a more stable funding source than income or sales taxes and warned that shifting funding to the state level could reduce local control.
At the same time, some lawmakers are proposing more targeted alternatives.
State Rep. Mark Hiner (R-Howard) has introduced a resolution that would eliminate property taxes for owner-occupied homes, while keeping them in place for other types of property.
The proposal is aimed at providing relief to homeowners without fully eliminating a major source of funding for local governments.
For now, the broader constitutional amendment remains in the early stages and would need to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures before it could appear on the ballot.
