Ohio House Republicans introduced their budget amendments earlier this week, and held three days of public testimony. Many parents, students, and school administrators showed up to testify against the elimination of TPP reimbursements.
TPP stands for Tangible Personal Property, which refers to a type of property (such as machines in a factory) that would be subject to local property taxes. As a part of the 2005 tax reform package, the state eliminated property taxes on tangible personal property. This dramatically reduced the amount of taxable property in most school districts, leading to major losses of revenue.
In 2005, policymakers recognized that this would put a huge hole in many school districts budgets and promised to reimburse local communities for those lost funds. However, those reimbursements have been reduced from the original promise, and the Governor’s budget proposed eliminating those funds. The House modified the Governor’s proposal, but 93 school districts still lose money. When the state has a budget surplus – how can we justify cutting funds for our schools? The state will use this money to finance an income tax cut for the wealthiest Ohioans – leaving local communities to cut services to students or increase local property taxes.