From a variety of perspectives, the Ax OH Tax movement to abolish all local property taxes in Ohio is going over like the proverbial lead balloon.

Consider:

● Its nearly yearlong drive to collect its goal of 620,000 ballot-access petition signatures as of last week has fallen woefully short, lacking 315,000 needed signers. And time is running short for their submission to state officials to qualify for this fall’s ballot.

● A mushrooming coalition of more than 65 organizations and local governments across the state have united under the banner of Ohioans to Protect Public Services to aggressively oppose the proposed voter-initiated state constitutional amendment.

● Property tax reform has jettisoned to Priority No. 1 in the Ohio General Assembly with successful results ever since the Citizens for Property Tax Reform’s campaign began in early 2025. So far, according to state Rep. David Thomas, R-Jefferson, a leader in the tax-relief push, Ohioans will enjoy about $3.8 billion in property tax reductions over the next three years thanks to reforms enacted over the past year.

Nonetheless, even though the abolition movement appears to be grasping for oxygen and the opposition movement gains more stamina by the day, the future of stable public services in local communities remains at risk if Ax OH Tax’s principal goal is not taken dead seriously and not fought vociferously.

At a press conference last week in Kirtland, Ax OH co-founder Brian Massie issued an urgent plea for a tsunami of petition signatures by June 1 and suggested the group may prolong its petition drive into next year, thereby missing again its goal of a statewide vote this November. (The group last year missed its initial target of November 2025 for ballot placement because of insufficient signatures.)

From the perspective of Ax OH Tax, activating the yellow caution light would serve its serious — albeit misguided — mission well. It would lessen the very real risk of their yearlong movement sinking for the lack of sufficient and properly signed and organized petitions.

From our perspective, the yearlong delay would provide more than ample time to greatly amplify the opposition voice as well as to complement newly enacted tax reforms with even more substantive measures to usher in more tax relief.

All of which could render the abolition movement moot.

But as of today, that outcome is far from certain, and Ohio voters could still conceivably put the kibosh on all local property tax collections in a statewide vote this fall. The stakes are clearly too high not to intensify the anti-tax abolition campaign.

Just how high are those stakes?

According to a memo Ohio Office of Budget and Management Director Kimberly Murnieks wrote to Gov. Mike DeWine earlier this year, Ohio would need to quadruple or more —from 2.75% to up to 15% statewide — its income tax to replace local property tax levies.

Further, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation, the state would have to raise its sales tax up to 18% of the cost of purchased goods to provide a suitable cushion to finance local safety services, schools, libraries and other critical services currently funded via local property taxes.

Before such alternative forms of financing public services and schools could be implemented, however, the loss of some $24 billion statewide in property tax revenue would be felt fast and furiously.

School districts could be forced to put financial survival above academic integrity. Municipalities could have no choice but to scale back or scuttle community-enrichment projects. Residents facing dire emergencies could be forced to endure much longer response times from police and firefighters.

That’s why the organized opposition to the ax-the-tax movement must grow and strengthen. Organizations, local governments and school districts in the Mahoning Valley should consider formally supporting OPPS. Individuals should resist the very real temptation to sign Ax-OH’s ballot-access petitions. State lawmakers should shift into high gear debate and passage of their additional property-tax relief measures.

On that latter point, the Citizens for Property Tax Reform deserves some credit. Were it not for its draconian threats to destroy the primary source of public school and local government operations in the state that have scared the bejesus out of some state and local lawmakers, the ongoing progress toward loosening the constantly tightening tax noose on Ohioans may never have materialized.

In coming weeks and months, that progress must continue unabated.

In the final analysis, we’re confident the Ax OH Tax movement can be doomed. But at the same time, however, it could well end up representing the springboard from which a more fair, equitable and less burdensome system of state and local taxation in this state was born.