3,702 to 1: The Sheer Fantasy That Is Vivek Ramaswamy’s Property Tax Plan

Hopefully, Ramaswamy will amend his property tax plan a second time to reflect reality. He isn’t Ron DeSantis and this isn’t Florida.

Did you know there are 3,702 local government entities? With the fourth most in America (that is why our local taxes are so high), Ohio has eighty-eight counties, 942 cities, 1,308 townships, and over 600 school districts. When we pay our property taxes, we pay something to each one of those local government entities. My property taxes go to the following entities (these are for Franklin County residents—yours may be different):

• Alcohol, Drug & Mental Health

• Children’s Services

• Columbus State

• Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities

• Library

• Metro Parks

• Senior Options

• Vocational School

• Zoo

Each one of those government entities has a built-in constituency and lots of government workers employed. Each constituent and government employee has family members. Many of those local government entities have elected board members, council members, commissioners, or trustees who oversee the work done by them. A solid chunk of those board members, council members, commissioners, and trustees used to be Ohio House or Ohio Senate members (that is where they go to rack up more pension credits to secure their gold-plated government retirement).

Additionally, the current crop of 132 legislators live among all of those folks as neighbors, fellow church members, small business owners, and the like. Each local government entity also has a lobbying group that has spent decades working Capital Square. Finally, every government worker employed by one of these local government entities is represented by a labor union which has negotiated a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that sets pay and benefits. They all also belong to the powerful Ohio pension systems. Roughly 90% of all property taxes go toward government employee pay and benefits (bonds cover capital expenditures for roads, buildings, etc.).

I provide this background because it is important in understanding why Vivek Ramaswamy’s property tax plan is sheer fantasy and stands no chance of being enacted should he win the governor’s race in November. So, when he tells Ohioans that by next June 30th he will have rolled back their property taxes from what they paid in 2025 to what they paid in 2020, he is either being dishonest or incredibly naive. You decide which one after reading my take below.