The official start of summer this weekend also ushers in the end of state lawmaking in Columbus. Yes, the long summer recess gives our technically part-time state legislators time to relax and regroup in their home districts while gathering constituent input on a wide swath of crucial unfinished business that awaits them in the fall.

Much of that unfinished business centers on controversial issues that require closure by the end of the year.

Placed high atop that action agenda must be property tax reform, data center regulation and the death penalty.

To its credit, this session of the Legislature has made significant inroads in providing residents with a measure of property-tax relief.

That set of initiatives include those that expand Homestead Exemption discounts, revise property value reassessment processes to make them less vulnerable to gigantic upward swings and cap unvoted tax revenue growth.

Then just earlier this month, both chambers approved a measure to allocate $350 million from the state’s General Revenue Fund to create a one-time property tax relief fund.

But many lawmakers and most disgruntled taxpayers rightly consider those as just the first steps toward more significant long-term relief. Those enacted reforms also have done little to stop the Ax Ohio Tax movement from placing a constitutional referendum on the ballot to abolish all property taxes, a consequence that could devastate schools and local governments. Fortunately, that group has decided to delay that potential ballot issue until the 2027 general election, which gives state legislators ample time to provide additional relief and quash that misguided movement altogether.

In recent months, the clamor over property tax burdens has been upstaged by uproar over the massive growth of data centers in Ohio and the potential adverse effects many argue they could bring to consumer utility bills and the state’s vital natural resources.

In the spring, Gov. Mike DeWine did assuage angered residents by temporarily repealing a sales-tax exemption for such facilities that robbed state coffers of a whopping $1.6 billion of potential revenue in 2025.

The Legislature also wisely formed a fact-finding bipartisan study commission called the Ohio Joint Select Committee on Data Centers to thoroughly review the economic, environmental and security impacts of the 200-plus centers that have dotted the state in recent years. It already has completed multiple hearings with dozens of individuals and groups for and against data center expansion.

That committee’s input helped to build House Bill 646, a sweeping regulatory bill on such centers. It would cap new sales tax exemptions at 50%, establish a specific rate class for data centers so their high electricity costs are not subsidized by host communities and their residents and would mandate centers use systems that minimize water consumption and preserve water quality.

Though action on that legislation stalled in the state Senate shortly before adjournment this month, its provisions should get priority attention, massaging and action when lawmakers reconvene. On that measure as well, time is of the essence.

As with tax reform, a group of concerned residents in Conserve Ohio has been collecting signatures to place a referendum on this fall’s ballot to ban construction of any large data centers. Such a draconian measure could harm Ohio’s economic competitiveness.

Though stalling clearly is not an option on tax reform and data centers, no issue has endured as much procrastination and inaction as capital punishment. Legislators should therefore commit themselves to end the misguided eight-year pause in carrying out the will of thoughtful judges and juries by taking concrete action on the death penalty.

From our perspective, it appears as if state House and Senate members simply lack the political will to fix what former state Attorney General Dave Yost most accurately described as “a broken system.”

At their disposal is House Bill 36, which authorizes alternative methods of execution. It would, however, need amended to rid it of nitrogen gas as one means as the U.S. Supreme Court recently declared that method unconstitutional.

Members could choose to enact House Bill 72, which would abolish the death penalty. That movement may have gained steam as earlier this week, the governor threw his support to abolition, saying he believes it no longer serves as a deterrent to crime.

Given the record of lollygagging on the issue, the best route for state lawmakers to take may well be drafting a constitutional referendum issue to place before all Ohio voters in the earliest possible statewide election or special election to abolish the death penalty. If it passes, the debate would be settled. If it fails, the Legislature would be forced to obey the majority will of the electorate and ensure the law is carried out with all due speed.

Clearly, our state representatives and senators have a full plate awaiting them. That’s why it’s crucial they do not unduly delay the start of the fall session to indulge in reelection campaigns. It’s also crucial they do not wait until after the November election to take any and all of these priorities seriously.

That would risk all of them dying on the vine to ensure a clean legislative plate for the new two-year 137th General Assembly next winter.

Clearly, the challenge to responsibly serve the will of the majority of their constituents looms super large. All lawmakers should commit to meeting that challenge.