This was my original piece–1361 words– too long for the Dayton Daily news. What they published is below, just for reference.

Ohio politicians would make lousy carpenters. Give them a sinking foundation and a leaking roof and they will blame the landscaper and suggest the wrecking ball instead of fixing the problem. That’s what passes for debate in Ohio right now. Rob Scott tells us school levies are the problem. Montgomery County Auditor Karl Keith tells us valuations and tax rates are the problem. Homeowners get to choose which tool they hate more. Nobody wants to talk about the fact that the house itself was framed wrong.

Scott is right about one thing. Levies have become a way of life instead of the last resort. Districts come back to the ballot again and again, just to keep the lights on. Voters are exhausted and suspicious and they have a point. Keith is also right that a lot of people simply cannot afford their tax bills anymore. When reassessments arrive, seniors on fixed incomes and working families feel like they are being punished for investing and owning a home.

But arguing over levies versus valuations is like arguing over tile colors while the floor joists are rotting. Ohio does not just have a levy problem or a valuation problem. We have a government map that was drawn for a different century and then other maps that change when the political wind blows. We piled new structures onto the same tax base without ever asking if the overall design still makes sense.

Start with schools. For years the Ohio Supreme Court, in the DeRolph decisions, has said our school funding system is unconstitutional. Instead of fixing the structure, state leaders worked around it. Ohio has a little over 600 school districts and only 88 counties. Each district insists on its own superintendent, treasurer, central office and elected school board before a single dollar reaches a classroom. Even if we low-ball the salaries and benefits, the statewide price tag for those duplicated leadership teams is comfortably into nine figures.

Imagine what happens if you stop kidding yourself and redraw that map. One district per county, 88 school districts instead of more than 600, means far fewer superintendents, treasurers and boards. That does not solve everything, but it pulls tens of millions of dollars out of overhead and makes them available for teachers, classrooms and kids. When you realize that Jefferson Township runs its own K to 12 system with about 250 students, smaller than some single elementary schools, you start to see how much of our “school funding crisis” is really a “too many systems for too few students” problem.

Levies become inevitable in that environment. Every tiny district must maintain its own administration, transportation, maintenance and technology stack. A new mandate does not hit one system, it hits hundreds. The fixed costs multiply. Homeowners are told to “support our schools” then discover they are mostly supporting the skeleton of a duplicative governance structure.

The same pattern exists outside education. Ohio is covered with small villages and townships that function less like noble examples of local self-government and more like banana republics with their own letterhead. There are more than 2,200 townships and municipalities, layered on top of the 88 counties. Many have part time elected officials and a thin layer of administration, but they still generate full time budgets, legal expenses and debt. If you’ve watched the dramedy in New Lebanon, you know.

Do we really need a mayor and council in every tiny village that can afford to pay a lawyer thousands of dollars a month to clean up its mistakes. Do we really need “urban townships” like Miami Township that are larger than most cities in their county, that operate like cities when it is convenient, but that still sit outside a coherent metro government. When they get sued and lose, as Miami Township did in a forty-five million dollar judgement, the system fails. Eventually, taxpayers just get another bill.

Then there is the alphabet soup of quasi-governmental slush funds: Educational Service Centers, downtown partnerships, development coalitions, regional planning councils, park districts, county social service agencies, public health departments and more. Many do useful work. Taken together, they are a maze of boards, executives and budgets that can be very hard for an ordinary taxpayer to trace or monitor. If you built a private company with this many overlapping divisions and side entities, investors would call it structurally unsound. In government we call it “economic development” and send taxpayers another bill.

On top of that overloaded structure we have built a property tax system that treats homeowners very differently from other asset holders. Most wealth in America is taxed when it is realized. If your stock portfolio doubles, you do not get a tax bill just because the market moved. You pay when you sell. With a home in Ohio, the government effectively taxes you on price swings you never cashed in. Reassessments turn unrealized housing gains into real annual bills, even if the increase is driven by your neighbor’s remodel or a hot market, not anything you did.

For seniors on fixed incomes and working families who bought modest homes years ago, this is not just an accounting curiosity. It is the difference between staying in place and being forced out. When they cannot pay, the sheriff arrives. In too many counties the sheriff might as well be one of the largest real estate brokers, transferring homes at auction because tax bills climbed faster than incomes.

Karl Keith is right that people cannot afford this and that the state could find money for relief if it can find hundreds of millions of dollars for professional sports owners. But the honest answer is not another special exemption layered on top of a broken valuation system. It is twofold.

First, stop taxing homeowners on phantom gains. Anchor property tax assessments to what people actually paid for their homes, plus the value of improvements they choose to make, for a predictable period of time. Why should you get taxed extra for your own sweat equity? If you raise someones taxes for fixing up their homes, you are de-incentizing investment, and if you need to see what that looks like, just look at the West Side of Dayton or my neighborhood, South Park, 40 years ago. If a community wants more revenue, it should have to vote openly on rates, not quietly benefit from appraisal spikes that shift people out of their homes without a single ballot cast. That's how gentrification became a dirty word.

Second, straighten the foundation we have built all this on. That means fewer jurisdictions, not more. One school district per county instead of hundreds. One integrated metro government in places like Montgomery County instead of a checkerboard of cities, townships and authorities that can barely share a 911 system. Rural Ohio is different from urban Ohio and deserves structures suited to it, but the basic principle should be the same. Clear lines of responsibility, enough scale to deliver services efficiently and no more tiny fiefdoms whose mistakes land on someone else’s tax bill. HB 331 is a pathetic start at eliminating smaller jurisdictions, but too little, too late. And who says 88 is a magic number for Counties as well? We redraw political maps all the time, why the reluctance to re-draw county lines that make sense now.

Then, we need to start divvying up property and sales taxes according to formulas that make sense – equitably, to fund schools and government functions in a way that maximize efficiency. Density should be incentivized, sprawl avoided. Expanding infrastructure is expensive, reducing footprints is efficient.

Rob Scott is partly right when he says levies have become a substitute for real reform. Karl Keith is partly right when he says our tax bills are crushing people. Both are talking about tools. Until Ohio is willing to redraw the blueprints, we will keep fighting over the wallpaper while the house of government is collapsing under the weight of too many politicians and jurisdictions.

If we really want tax relief and better schools, the path is obvious. Fewer overlapping governments. Smarter, fairer property tax rules. A modern map for a modern state. The rest is noise.

---

What the DDN published Feb 15, 2026

OPINION: Stop blaming levies; Ohio built the house wrong

Ohio has more than 600 school districts in a state with 88 counties. Each one has its own superintendent, treasurer, central office and elected board before a single dollar reaches a classroom. You do not need a Ph.D. in public finance to see the problem. One district per county would still give us local control, but it would pull tens of millions of dollars out of overhead and put it into teachers and kids instead of into offices and titles.

Look at Jefferson Twp. It runs a K to 12 system for 250 students. You need a principal, that’s it. Multiply that across Ohio and levies become inevitable. Every tiny district pays for an administration, transportation, maintenance and technology stack. A new mandate does not hit one system, it hits hundreds. Homeowners are told to “support our schools” then discover they are mostly supporting a bunch of folks playing at school leadership.

Ohio is full of small villages and townships that function less like noble examples of local self-government and more like banana republics with letterhead. There are more than 2,200 townships and municipalities stuffed inside 88 counties. Many have part time elected officials and a few administrators, but they still generate full time budgets, legal expenses and debt.

Do we really need a mayor and council in every tiny village that can afford to pay a lawyer thousands of dollars a month to clean up its mistakes? New Lebanon anybody? Do we really need “urban townships” like Miami Twp. that are larger than most cities in their county, that operate like cities when it is convenient, but still sit outside a coherent metro government? When they get sued and lose, as Miami Twp. did in a $45 million judgement, the bill still lands on taxpayers.

Then there is the alphabet soup of quasi-governmental slush funds. Educational Service Centers, downtown partnerships, development coalitions, regional planning councils, park districts, county social service agencies, public health departments and more (JobsOhio anyone?). Many do useful work. Taken together they are a maze of boards, executives and budgets that are very hard for communities to oversee. If you built a private company with this much overhead, investors would call it bloated. In Ohio we like to call it “economic development” and stick taxpayers with the bill.

Our property tax system treats homeowners very differently from other asset holders. If your stock portfolio doubles, you don’t get a tax bill just because the market moved. You pay when you sell. With a home in Ohio, government effectively taxes you on what your neighbor did. Reassessments turn unrealized housing gains into real annual bills, even if the increase is driven by your neighbor’s remodel or a hot market, not anything you did.

For seniors on fixed incomes and working families who bought modest homes years ago, this is not an accounting curiosity. It is the difference between staying in place and being forced out. When they can’t pay, the sheriff arrives. In too many counties the sheriff is the number one real estate broker, without a Realtor’s license, transferring homes at auction because tax bills have no connection to your investment.

If you want lower taxes and better schools, stop listening to politicians who whine about the latest levy or valuation. The honest solution is twofold. First, stop taxing homeowners on phantom gains. Anchor property tax assessments to what people actually paid for their homes, plus the value of improvements they choose to make. If a community wants more revenue, it should have to vote openly on rates, not quietly benefit from appraisal spikes that force people out of their homes without a single ballot cast.

Second, straighten the foundation we built all this on. That means fewer jurisdictions, not more. One school district per county instead of hundreds. One integrated metro uni-gov in places like Montgomery County instead of a checkerboard of cities, townships and authorities that can barely share a 911 system. Rural Ohio is different from urban Ohio and deserves structures suited to it, but the basic principle should be the same. Clear lines of responsibility. Enough scale to deliver services efficiently. No more tiny fiefdoms whose mistakes land on someone else’s tax bill. It is also time to redraw the county lines to match the sprawl. The last change to an Ohio county boundary was in 1888. We have been paying for a 19th century map ever since.

If we really want tax relief and better schools, the path is obvious. Fewer overlapping governments. Smarter, fairer property tax rules. A statewide tax distribution system based on needs. A modern map for a modern state. The rest is noise from lousy carpenters.

Esrati is a community activist who is running for Congress in Ohio 10 district.