Mike Curtin is a former editor and associate publisher of The Columbus Dispatch, and a former two-term state lawmaker.
It's no wonder Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign staff, an overworked mop-and-bucket brigade, limits his appearances. He's flunking Ohio Taxes 101, and they fear what he might say next, spilling arrogance and ignorance.
Feb. 24, 2025 – West Chester Township – Ramaswamy for Governor kickoff: “We need to bring down the income tax eventually down to zero. We need to bring down the property tax eventually down to zero.”
Staff Memo #1: How Ohio taxes work
Sir, neither the Ohio governor nor the General Assembly has constitutional or statutory authority to reduce property taxes. The state neither imposes nor collects property taxes.
The Ohio Constitution empowers local governments
to levy voter-approved property taxes. Sir, we are talking about 1,308 townships, more than 600 school districts, 251 library districts, 981 special-purpose districts (water and sewer, police, fire, EMS and more).
Sir, they rely heavily, many of them exclusively, on voter-approved property taxes – which generate about $24 billion annually. That equals the combined annual revenue from Ohio’s state income and sales taxes. With respect, sir, most of these local governments and services would vanish without property taxes. Their constituents do not want them to vanish, sir. Last Nov. 4, Ohio townships had 496 issues on the ballot. Voters approved 442 of them (89%). Ohioans love their townships, sir. They’re also rather fond of their safety forces, libraries, schools ...
Furthermore, sir, Ohio’s income tax, at a flat rate of 2.75%, already is the second lowest among the 41 states that have income taxes. Of the nine without income taxes, most have distinctive economies enabling them to heavily tax a particular sector:
- Florida/tourism
- Nevada/gambling
- Alaska, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming/natural resource extraction.
Like 40 other states, Ohio requires a balanced tax system to avoid overburdening any single tax source.
State Taxation 101 courses, sir, explain the wisdom of balanced tax systems – the “three-legged stool.” Income. Property. Sales.
Remove one leg, you overburden the other two. Remove two, you get one of two outcomes: a) back to nuts and berries, survival of the fittest; or b) to fund essential services, financed solely by sales taxes, you’d have to increase Ohio’s sales tax rate from its current 5.75% to nearly 20%.
Sir, Ohio’s Office of Budget and Management has done the math. Please check it out. Sky-high sales taxes do not work, sir. Ohioans would drive to neighboring states to shop and save plenty; Ohio retailers would lose big.
Jan. 7, 2026 – Cleveland – Ramaswamy taps running mate, Sen. Rob McColley: “We’re going to deliverthe biggest property tax rollback in the history of our state.”
Staff Memo #2: Memo #1 and what the governor should do about taxes
Sir, did you read memo #1? The one that began, “Neither the Ohio governor nor the General Assembly ... ” Property taxes are complicated, sir. There are many complexities not covered in memo #1.
The U.S. and Ohio constitutions have contracts clauses, prohibiting states from passing laws impairing the obligations of contracts. Voter-approved tax levies and bond issues, with terms typically ranging from 10 to 30 years, are contracts, sir. They underwrite and secure bonds. The bonds are secured by the property taxes you say you will eliminate, sir.
However, there are some things an Ohio governor can do, with a cooperative General Assembly, to lower the property-tax burden on average Ohioans.
We could slow down runaway property-tax abatements to the well-connected. In 2004, the total value of abated property in Ohio was $5.7 billion. In 2024,it was $26.6 billion, a nearly five-fold increase over two decades. Abated property is removed from the taxable base, which increases the effective tax rate on non-abated properties, sir.
We also could reinstate the 10% and 2.5% property-tax credits, where the state paid one-eighth of the property tax bills for residential, agricultural and business property owners, starting in the 1970s. The state eliminated the credits in 2013. But the state cannot reinstate the credits if it eliminates the income tax, sir.
On the income tax side, we could eliminate special carve-outs for the wealthy and well-connected, such as the LLC loophole. Even with a flat 2.75% income tax, Ohioans earning more than $200,000 annually pay a lower effective income tax rate than those earning between $40,000 and $80,000. The LLC loophole enables the richest Ohioans to pay NO tax on their first $250,000 of income. Sir, at present Ohio’s official income tax policy is to tax nurses, teachers and truck drivers at a higher rate than millionaires.
July 14, 2026 – Columbus – Ohio Chamber of Commerce event: “We will start the first step of that march to zero income taxation with elimination of taxation on capital gains ... “
Staff Memo #3: The prior memos and billionaires
Sir: Did you read Memos #1 and #2? Ohio already has one of the most regressive tax systems in the nation. Shouldn’t our “first step” give some tax relief to the middle class and working poor? Your proposal, sir, according to the Legislative Budget Office, primarily benefits the richest Ohioans.
Such as yourself.
Mike Curtin is a former editor and associate publisher of The Columbus Dispatch, and a former two-term state lawmaker who served on the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ramaswamy's weary staff hasn't explained property, income taxes to him, so I will | Opinion
