The Senate is planning to vote on its version of the budget in the next week, and the possibility of last minute changes means there are a lot of moving parts where no provision is safe. The top Senate leader has at least one measure he knows he wants to pass one way or another.
Farmers have seen the taxes on their land go up as much as 300 percent. That’s because of a variable in the Current Ag Use Valuation, or CAUV, formula.
Both the House and Senate have bills to change the formula in order to bring those costs down. But education leaders caution that those changes could cut $14-20 million from school funding statewide.
Republican Senate President Larry Obhof insists changing the CAUV formula is going to happen.
“I think overall spread out across the state we’re not talking about a significant amount of money, but for agricultural landowners we’re talking about 100 percent increase every three years, so we’re going to put a stop to that,” Obhof says.
The Ohio School Boards Association believes lawmakers should create a study panel first to examine the financial impact of changing the formula.
