All eyes will focus squarely on the Statehouse on Monday when the Ohio House of Representatives convenes a rare summer session to act on a call from Republican leaders to override three controversial vetoes of Gov. Mike DeWine in the state’s $60 billion 2026-27 biennium budget.

All three deal with the No. 1 priority issue of 2025 across Ohio: skyrocketing property taxes. Though divisions are wide and partisan over the appropriateness of overriding the governor’s action to erase several property tax reforms from the budget document, unity remains strong on the need to fix the state’s broken property tax system.

It’s perfectly clear why. The current system has resulted in property tax rates in some communities in Ohio ballooning up to 500% with post-pandemic revaluations in recent years. Locally, the 2024 property revaluations showed an overall increase of between 35% and 40% in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, which translated into massive hikes in taxes on many of them.

To their credit, state lawmakers have begun to respond to those cries for help, enacting a series of reforms this year that will at least chip at the edges of excessive taxation on property owners.

But on some of the more draconian measures slipped into the budget from House Bill 335 and rejected by the governor, we must side with DeWine, the propriety of his vetoes and his plea to give a new working group on tax reform a chance to succeed. We therefore urge House members to reject resurrection of the struck-down provisions.

DeWine’s thoughtful vetoes were predicated on the potential adverse impact the items could have on adequately funding school districts, local governments, libraries and other state-supported entities. Specifically, those line-item strike-throughs dealt with:

● County budget commissions: This original provision would have given authority for county budget commissions — made up of the county prosecutor, treasurer and auditor — to reduce voter-approved levies. That power, however, could disrespect decisions made by voters and could weaken local control over funding schools and local governments.

● 20-mill floor calculation: This item would have added emergency and other levies to calculations for the 20-mill floor that is the effective tax rate for a community. Supporters of the veto argue the governor’s action prevents potential financial instability.

● School district property tax levy restrictions: This item would have outlawed political subdivisions from placing replacement and other types of property tax levies on the ballot. Supporters of this veto say it supports local control and flexibility over decisions to fund essential services.

Since the announcement of the special legislative session, a wide swath of groups in the state have vocalized strong opposition to overriding the vetoes. They include public school districts, local government associations, the Ohio Library Council, Democratic lawmakers and others.

Locally, Jeremy Batchelor, superintendent of Youngstown City Schools, said if the provisions in question are left intact, the district could be forced to seek many additional levies to survive.

As for local governments, Warren Mayor Doug Franklin is not shy in expressing outrage toward the provisions in House Bill 335, many of which were inserted into the budget bill and vetoed.

“We need to band together to fight nonsense. … The state has been consistent with this assault on killing cities,” Franklin said.

Though such doomsday scenarios for Ohio’s schools and cities appear unlikely even if the vetoes are overridden, it’s clear that the Legislature’s tax reform plans have inflamed passions statewide.

And those passions won’t die anytime soon. Even if DeWine’s vetoes are left intact, similar provisions in HB 335 will be up for continued debate this fall.

That means the clock is ticking for comprehensive, bipartisan and all-inclusive study and debate on boosting tax relief without booting needed support for schools and local governments. It also means the Property Tax Reform Working Group formed by the governor must get to work as soon as possible to meet its charge of coming up with concrete recommendations for reform by Sept. 30.

We strongly urge the group to meet early and often this summer, to first fully vet each of the vetoed items by the governor and to gain as much diverse input from school district leaders, local government leaders, the business community and others.

We also beseech the group to make that late September deadline firm to enable the General Assembly time to follow up with action on meaningful but adequate property tax reform by year’s end.

To accomplish those tasks, the governor’s vetoes must be preserved. If past is prologue, odds seem strong the override will not succeed. Of 152 line-item vetoes during his tenure, the General Assembly has mustered up enough support to veto only two of them.

Here’s hoping DeWine’s winning record remains firmly intact Monday and that the Legislature, with the assistance from the working group, can craft bipartisan reforms that balance much needed tax relief with responsible and adequate fiscal management of our schools and communities sooner rather than later.