A proposed constitutional amendment to consider abolishing property taxes in Ohio won’t be on the Nov. 3 ballot because the group collecting signatures has again failed to get enough people to sign petitions.

This is the second year in a row that the Committee to Abolish Ohio Property Taxes, also called AxOhioTax, tried to qualify for the ballot as it failed to do so in 2025.

Brian Massie, a leader of the group, announced Friday on Ohio Political News, a right-wing political podcast, that not enough signatures were collected.

The group had to submit petitions with 413,488 valid signatures from at least half of the state’s 88 counties by a July 1 deadline. If the group submitted the signatures and failed to meet the minimum threshold, it would have to start again, Massie said.

Instead, Massie said the group would continue to collect signatures to qualify for the November 2027 ballot.

The group, Massie said, wanted to collect at least 620,000 signatures in order to be confident it would reach the minimum, as some signatures would be ruled invalid, and that hasn’t occurred. While Massie refused to say Friday how many signatures the group had, he put that number in April at only 305,000.

Massie said an official in Lake County, where he resides, has “declared war on we, the people, and we, the people, are declaring war on our politicians on the state level. When you are at war, you never give the enemy any intel. The only time they’re going to get a signature count from me is when we drive our U-Haul truck with all of our petitions down to the secretary of state’s office and then I’ll tell them.”

Massie also said: “As responsible citizens, we want to provide our elected officials with enough time to address the needed spending cuts to the bloated taxing authorities throughout Ohio and the spending priorities of the state legislators. We do not have a problem generating revenue in the state. We have a spending and a fraud, waste and abuse problem.”

Legislators late last year approved five property tax bills that they say will save homeowners more than $3 billion over the next three years, change how millage is counted for school districts and permit county budget commissions to control levy amounts.

Massie said the new property tax laws are “far too little and continue to complicate an already far too complex system of taxation. We, the people of Ohio, want significant tax reductions in property taxes now rather than reduction of future increases.”

Massie said Ohio is being “run by socialists. This whole constitutional amendment and taking an oath of office to support and defend the Ohio Constitution is all just rhetoric. They really don’t mean it, especially at the state Senate.”

Jen Detwiler, spokesperson for Ohioans to Protect Public Services, which opposes the abolition of property taxes, said Friday: “There is no doubt that Ohioans are concerned about property taxes. But many Ohioans also understand that it would be reckless to abolish all property taxes with no plan to replace the main source of funding for vital local services.”

Ohioans to Protect Public Services formed in April to oppose the property tax abolition proposal. It includes more than 75 organizations, including those representing police, fire and emergency medical personnel; educators; caregivers for seniors, children and people with disabilities; healthcare providers; libraries; parks; business and labor; and local elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans.

Detwiler said: “As a petition drive continues for a reckless property tax abolishment amendment, our nonpartisan broad-based coalition will sustain our public education campaign on the serious consequences that are at stake. Ohioans deserve real property tax reform, not a constitutional amendment that wipes out more than $21 billion in local funding with no plan for what comes next.”

Eliminating property taxes, Detwiler said, “forces our state into impossible choices: severe cuts to local services, massive increases in sales and income taxes, or both.”

Massie said: “Predictably, many government officials have started fear-mongering that all public schools and local services would be eliminated because of the elimination of property taxes. We have been criticized by many state and local officials for not having a plan to replace the property tax funding currently being assessed by local taxing authorities.”

Massie proposed reducing the size of government and cutting spending, including the consolidation of communities and school districts.