It takes a lot of guts to try to override a governor’s veto, and that is just what Matt Huffman and the House Republicans are poised to do on July 21st, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio. They have been trying to reform property taxes in House Bill 96 in three key areas, eliminating replacement levies, which often lead to tax increases. Republicans want to phase them out. The second thing is that they wish to implement county-level cuts, giving county budget commissions the authority to lower property taxes if the local governments or schools collect more than they need. Then the third thing is to adjust the 20-mill floor, changing how the formula is calculated to reduce school funding as property values continue to rise, potentially. DeWine vetoed these parts of the bill, arguing that they’d create enormous problems for schools by disrupting funding stability. It takes a lot of guts for Huffman and other Republicans, including the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, to stand behind these reforms and push for a 60-vote majority. It will be close. If the House can get it over to the Senate, the Senate has the votes, so it really will come down to whether Republicans dare to part with DeWine and override him as they should. Many people talk tough on the campaign trail, and this is one of those times when real courage is needed. It would be beneficial if Republicans could step up and take the lead at this critical juncture. Many people would take pride in a good government headed in the right direction. Because what DeWine is protecting is loaded with bad government misery that is headed for reform regardless. There is no stopping the reforms to private property that are going to take place.
I feel like everywhere these days, I have to say it, and there are a lot of people who don’t think about these things very much who don’t want to hear it. However, I’ve been pointing it out for years, so the road to this July 21st vote is a very long one. And it’s just the start of many things to come. The next governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, whom I had the chance to discuss this very topic with just a few weeks ago, is looking at major reforms on private property taxation. President Trump is discussing the same concept, namely, the elimination of private property taxation all together. It will take several years to get there, but that’s where the current sentiment is headed. And people like Mike DeWine, who have been a part of building that old system, know that it will disrupt the way they envisioned funding for government and services. However, those old trends are what have put us in our current budgetary situation. We are going to have some tough discussions, just as we are currently with the Federal Reserve. A group of independent bankers can’t be allowed to strangle billions of dollars of opportunity cost out of our economy just to protect lenders’ profit margins, when the growth potential of reform could generate so much more than the old static measures. For those who think that punishing property ownership is the way to fund the level of government we may want as a society, it essentially comes down to choice: do you trust the free market, or the minds of humanity to impose burdens to pay for government services, such as school funding? For DeWine, he’s just never going to be ready to admit that years and years of socialism are behind the creation of property tax penalties to pay for public education. And, of course, the teachers’ unions control that entire industry, leading to cost overruns that our out-of-control local governments must deal with, leaving behind expensive chaos.
So you can’t help but talk about socialism, communism, and Marxism in general when we discuss how taxation against private property came into our culture to begin with, because we have gone through a period where Democrats and soft shelled Republicans didn’t want to believe to what level Karl Marx influenced legislative policy making going back to the beginning of the last century. Much of the American expansion period, from 1850 on, saw a significant influx of European socialists who entered the country and introduced their Karl Marx-inspired ideas, which ultimately infected our free enterprise system with penalties against private property. And it has gone on for so long that we just assumed that’s the way it has to be. However, this has led to runaway costs, as we have seen in public schools currently, and penalties against those who own property, as they pay more for the same services than, say, an apartment dweller who requires far more tax services, far more than they pay. It’s a very unfair system that undermines the premise of private property, destroying the American idea, and it was baked into all the progressive taxation policies that came with the creation of the Fed in 1913, a mistake at its inception that has only worsened over time. There are old politicians, like DeWine, who have carried these mistaken ideas throughout their entire political life, and they are trying to preserve them for all kinds of unhealthy reasons. However, the temperament lies in reforming that basic concept.
Of course, what would replace these revenue devices would be a use tax of some kind, as well as sales tax in general. However, that relies on the market’s growth mechanisms, similar to Trump’s tariffs. People were against those for the same reason, and only now, a few months into his second term, are people beginning to see the logic, fruitfully. After a few years of Trump, many significant economic developments will become a reality that people cannot see now. Yet, as with the trend on private property, we should incentivize people to own as much private property as possible. The taxes on it are part of a socialist scheme from the beginning that was always part of the plan to grow government. There is no way to determine the correct funding model for public schools if property owners bear the burden for the benefit of those who can’t afford property. It’s a wealth redistribution scam that’s baked into the policy of collecting taxes to grow government in ways that nobody can reliably control, because it’s a tax against the few for the needs of the many. And it takes away the incentive to invest and create. What we know now is that encouraging growth would generate significantly more revenue through optimism, as opposed to the current system of oppression. In short, take the socialism, communism, and Marxism out of the legislative process, and the economy works far better, and at that point, you can see what your actual revenue stream would be, and can make much better decisions for how to construct society, such as elements of school funding and per-pupil budget needs. With the system as it is, we can’t even have the discussion. There is a significant chance for the Ohio House to take a bold, Trump-like action. However, the trend, regardless, is working against old politicians like DeWine and is moving away from penalizing private property ownership. Whether that happens on July 21st, 2025, or at a later time, the taxation of private property is headed for significant reform and disruption of the current methods. It would be better sooner if people could find the courage. But eventually, it’s happening anyway, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it. Because it never should have been created in the first place.
Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707
