Property tax pressure is mounting 

Since the pandemic, property taxes have leapt to new highs in Ohio. Investors from Omaha to Chicago, meanwhile, have been buying up unpaid debt at record levels. 

All around the state, county treasurers are selling more debt than ever. Cuyahoga County last month sold $18 million. Franklin County last year sold $10 million. Lucas County is scheduling its first sale since 2008. 

The investors buy up the debt, giving them the right to collect with up to 18% interest, although some treasurers negotiate for lower interest rates when they sell. Mortgage lenders have compared the transactions to payday loans, trapping cash-strapped borrowers in cycles of debt – with risk of foreclosure on the line. 

Treasurers say the tax lien certificate sales are a key way to enforce tax laws to fund schools, police and other local services. Amy Acton, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, wants to reel in some of the lending practices. A bipartisan duo of Statehouse lawmakers is pushing to prohibit them altogether. 

Read Jake’s latest on the rise of tax debt sales in Ohio here.

Making sense of the Statehouse

What happens in Columbus doesn't stay in Columbus. At Signal Statewide, we track what lawmakers are debating — and what it means for your town, school or small business. Our team explains complicated bills, asks tough questions and puts the focus where it belongs: on everyday Ohioans. If our reporting helps you stay informed, have better conversations, or feel more in control of what's going on in Ohio, we hope you'll support it.

Amy Acton and Matt Huffman aligned on data centers?

A new data center plan from Democratic governor candidate Amy Acton shows areas of agreement between her and other Republicans, including Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman.

Acton’s plan – which she described as a “conditional moratorium” – would require new data centers to meet various requirements in order to be approved. These include meeting environmental and transparency standards, covering their own electricity costs and hiring union workers.

Some of those plans – such as the environmental, transparency and cost-covering rules – bear similarities to a compromise bill Huffman helped negotiate in June. That deal stalled in the House after Republicans couldn’t agree on what to do with Ohio’s lucrative data center tax break. Acton’s plan, meanwhile, doesn’t mention the tax break. 

Click here to read more about Acton’s plan and what Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has said during his campaign about data centers. 

Kaptur transgender votes

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur voted last week against multiple anti-transgender amendments to a federal military spending bill, not long after the longtime Toledo Democrat caught flak from LGBTQ+ advocates over her vote for another Republican-backed anti-transgender measure earlier this year.

Kaptur voted against three amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act and the bill itself. Two amendments passed – one bans military-provided health insurance from paying for gender-related treatments and another requires Department of Defense-operated schools to set boys’ and girls’ athletic eligibility based on the students’ reproductive systems. A third amendment that narrowly failed would have codified President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military. 

The votes show Kaptur has red lines when it comes to transgender issues. She was one of eight House Democrats to vote in May for a Republican bill requiring school officials to get parental permission before changing the name or pronouns used to refer to a student. That bill, which has yet to clear the Senate, also would pull federal funding from schools found to teach “gender ideology.” Kaptur’s vote came not long before Democrat Amy Acton announced her support of an Ohio law banning transgender athletes from participating in girls and women’s sports, setting off criticism and debate among state Democrats as they prepare for the November elections.

Trans sports data 

In January 2024, Ohio banned transgender girls and women from competing in girls high school or collegiate-level sports, part of a wave of conservative states passing laws to restrict athletic participation and access to gender-affirming health care for minors. 

The Ohio High School Athletic Association sent Signal Statewide data this week showing what that has looked like in practice. 

Around the time the law passed, eight transgender girls – students who were assigned male at birth and live as girls – were allowed by OHSAA to compete in a girls’ sport. Five transgender boys competed. That’s about .0037% of the 350,000 to 400,000 student athletes who compete in OHSAA sports each year. 

Since the prohibition took effect, three transgender boys each year have enrolled in a school sport. No transgender girls have – school officials rejected one student who sought permission.

Vivek catches friendly fire from radio host

Republican governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is running a poor campaign and would lose the November election if it were held today. Or at least, that’s what a conservative Cleveland radio host contended during a recent show.

Jake Underwood spent an entire 60-minute segment on July 20 delivering an extensive criticism of Ramaswamy’s political performance ahead of the November election. His concerns include what he sees as Ramaswamy being too focused on the Republican base at the expense of independent voters. He described Ramaswamy being late for a Medina County Republican Party function last winter, the same day he attended an Ohio State football game. Underwood also said Ramaswamy doesn’t talk enough with local media – including refusing to come on Underwood’s show – choosing instead to sit down with national podcast hosts and produce social media videos.

“Please, I beg you, give me a way to defend you. Come on this show, answer some of the hard questions,” Underwood said during the show while also making clear he’s no fan of the Democratic governor candidate, Amy Acton. 

The pronouncements apparently got Ramaswamy’s team’s attention. A campaign official called in during Underwood’s show two days later, saying Ramaswamy was even less likely to appear on the show now, according to a producer who recounted the conversation on air.

“Wow,” Underwood said, apparently absorbing the information in real time. “I don't understand it personally.… But thanks for calling back. You didn't call back for the last five months.”

Ramaswamy has been selective in how he engages with Ohio media, but he has sat for interviews with other state conservative media personalities, including a recent appearance with Bob Frantz, whom Underwood replaced on WHK radio late last year. 

In an interview, Underwood, a former top staffer for the Medina County Republican Party, told Signal Statewide he heard dozens of complaints about Ramaswamy at local Republican functions before he finally decided to air them out via his show. 

“I’m sitting there and saying, ‘No one else is going to talk about this.’ Everyone who’s conservative-leaning is going to do nothing but kiss his cheeks because they want to make sure they’re good with the guy who could possibly be governor,” Underwood said. “I don’t care about being good with anyone because ultimately they have to be accountable to us.”

Underwood said that, aside from Ramaswamy’s team, he hasn’t heard from anyone directly involved in politics about his segment. But, he said, feedback from his listeners has been mostly positive.

“To be honest, the people who listen to me said, ‘I don’t agree with it, but I get what you’re saying on the accountability,’” he said.

Trump says he’s fighting massive Medicaid fraud. In Ohio, that means hyping tiny cases. A look at the four-figure prosecutions that critics call a distraction from looming Medicaid cuts, by Adam Ferrise of Cleveland.com

In Ohio, toxic wastewater is bubbling up out of the ground. The state is a major importer of fracking wastewater, which gets pumped underground but doesn’t always stay there. The city of Marietta is fighting back, by Quinn Glabicki of The New York Times. 

Butter flags, bald eagle: The Ohio State Fair has unveiled the theme for this year’s butter cow sculpture at the state fairgrounds. It’s udderly patriotic, in honor of America’s 250th birthday, complete with a Statue of Liberty, by Sarah Donaldson of the Ohio Statehouse News Bureau.

Equality Ohio changes grade for Amy Acton from ‘A’ to ‘Pending': A prominent LGBTQ+ advocacy organization has downgraded its rating for Amy Acton after the Democratic governor candidate said she supports an Ohio law that bans transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports, by the Buckeye Flame’s Ken Schneck.

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