Feeling crushed by property taxes? Beavercreek may have a fix

The city of Beavercreek is doing something many communities have talked about for years but rarely acted upon: rethinking how it taxes its residents.

For decades, Beavercreek has been an outlier in the region. The city is one of the few sizable cities in Ohio that never adopted a municipal income tax, relying almost entirely on property taxes to fund services. Note, most townships in Ohio rely solely on property taxes for revenue. However, in Beavercreek it was not by accident. Voters turned down income tax proposals more than once, most recently in 2022, reinforcing a long-standing skepticism about adding a new line to anyone’s paycheck in the city.

Beavercreek city leaders are now exploring a plan to embed an income tax into the municipal code as part of a broader restructuring with the goal of reducing reliance on property taxes. The idea isn’t to stack one tax on top of another, but to rebalance the system in a way reflecting today’s economic reality.

This reality is becoming harder to ignore across Ohio.

Homeowners are opening property tax bills that look nothing like they did just a few years ago. Rising home values have translated into higher tax burdens, often without a direct vote. For many residents, especially those on fixed incomes, that has created a growing sense that the system is no longer working for them.

Local officials see the same thing from the other side of the public funding ledger. Police, fire, road maintenance and infrastructure continue to cost more every year. When a city leans heavily on property taxes, it ties its financial health to forces largely outside its control such as real estate markets, state policy decisions and periodic reappraisals that send property tax bills soaring.

Beavercreek’s proposal is an attempt to change.

Read the remainder of this opinion piece on the Dayton Daily News website, where it originated. Reach Rob Scott at rob@robscott.us.