News Room

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 2007

Columbus, OH -- Lt. Governor Lee Fisher and Ohio Department of Aging Director Barbara Riley today participated in a town hall meeting to discuss the Strickland Administration's budget proposal to expand the Homestead Property Tax Exemption. Fisher and Riley joined several state legislators, community leaders and senior citizens for the meetings at Kent Social Services and the Kenmore Community Center in Akron.

"Governor Strickland has already discussed several ways in which this administration plans to make life better for Ohio's seniors, and keeping them in their homes is extremely important to maintaining their quality of life," said Fisher, who also serves as Director of the Ohio Department of Development. "Ohio's seniors have worked hard for many years to purchase and maintain nice, comfortable homes and should not have to shoulder the burden of Ohio's property tax system."

The Homestead Exemption is a statewide program that offers a reduction in real property and manufactured home taxes to qualifying homeowners who are over the age or 65 or permanently disabled. Governor Strickland has proposed targeted, progressive tax relief to Ohio's senior citizens by expanding the Exemption to include every senior citizen regardless of income or home value. The expansion would provide property tax relief for an estimated 775,000 homeowners, or one of every four homeowners statewide, and save senior citizen homeowners an average of $400 a year. The Exemption currently applies to only 220,000 homeowners.

"We're thrilled that the Governor has found an innovative way to breathe new life into a proven program like the Homestead Exemption and make it even more valuable for the people of our state," said Director Riley. "More than 221,000 older Ohioans currently qualify for the program and I am very pleased that this valuable reprieve from ever-increasing property taxes could become available to all seniors, at the time of life when they can most use it."

The proposed expansion would have no impact on school district or local government revenues because the state will reimburse for the additional property tax relief, as it does now for the existing Homestead Exemption program. Strickland on Wednesday released school district-by-school district data for the average tax cut Ohio's seniors would receive as a result of the proposal. The comprehensive document of district-by-district data can be found on the Department of Taxation's Web site by clicking here.

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Media contacts: Maria Smith at (614) 466-2382 or Kimber Perfect at (614) 466-2609