There is something fundamentally wrong with a system where you can pay off your home in full. Every last dollar and still be told you don’t truly own it.
Property taxes are not just another line item on a bill. They are a permanent lease payment to the government for the right to stay in your own home. Miss enough payments, and the state can take what you already paid for. That isn’t ownership. That’s conditional permission.
I’m running for State Representative because I believe Ohioans deserve better than that. And that’s why I support eliminating property taxes altogether.
Property taxes disproportionately harm the people least able to absorb them: seniors on fixed incomes, working families already stretched thin, and first-time homeowners trying to build stability. Every year, homeowners brace themselves for reassessments they didn’t ask for and tax hikes they didn’t vote on simply because their neighborhood became more “valuable” on paper.
You didn’t earn more money. You didn’t sell your house. But your tax bill went up anyway.
That isn’t fair, and it certainly isn’t just. Supporters of property taxes often argue they’re “necessary” to fund local services. But necessity should never be an excuse for injustice. The real question isn’t whether government should be funded it’s how it should be funded, and who bears the burden.
Ohio already has multiple revenue streams that do not punish people for owning a home: sales taxes, income taxes, user fees, and consumption-based models that align cost with use. These systems, while not perfect, do not threaten to confiscate someone’s shelter for failing to keep up with rising valuations.
Property taxes also discourage investment, improvement, and long-term community stability. Why fix up your home if doing so just raises your tax bill? Why stay rooted in a neighborhood if rising costs can eventually price you out of the house you already own?
Homeownership should be a foundation for security not a lifelong liability. Eliminating property taxes would send a clear message: if you own your home, it is truly yours. Not the county’s. Not the state’s. Yours.
As a State Representative, I will fight for policies that respect personal ownership, protect families from government overreach, and stop treating Ohioans like permanent renters in their own homes. This isn’t a radical idea it’s a moral one. You should not have to keep buying back what you already own.
Zach Hall
Libertarian Candidate for State Representative District 43
