On Wednesday, Cincinnati City Council voted 7-2 to raise property taxes, ending a long-standing rollback. Although city managers have argued for years that the 1999 freeze was intended to be temporary, no administration has attempted to diverge from that promise until now.
The vote to increase property taxes comes only two days after its public announcement and without allowing members of the community an opportunity to weigh in. While the city remains economically strong and taxpayers struggle, Mayor Pureval and the city council have opted to address perceptions of future shortfalls over continuing established tax relief.
“We are fully aware of the budgetary challenges facing us when our ARP dollars are no longer available,” Mayor Pureval said. “Plain and simple, our expenses are growing faster than our revenue, and not doing anything poses a massive threat to our city right now and into the future. Our ability to administer essential services, our ability to do the work required to grow Cincinnati, they depend on stepping up as quickly as possible to take positive steps. Ending the rollback is an important part of that.”
The new millage introduces an additional $39 a year per $100,000 worth of property to bring in over $15 million in annual revenue. Mayor Pureval wants to use the tax increase, which property owners will see starting 2024, on emergency rental assistance, code enforcement, and young workers, among other things. The vote to eliminate the freeze comes after local business leaders contend that the council failed to incorporate community input into their decision-making process.
City Manager Sheryl Long, who suggested the increase, maintains that Cincinnati anticipates future shortages caused by employee raises and a reduction in income tax revenue due to remote work. However, Cincinnati saw an extraordinary $85 million carryover from the fiscal year 2022 budget, which city administrators attribute to ARP savings and unexpected high income tax revenue. Meanwhile, taxpayers and average families continue to be burdened by high inflation and pandemic-related setbacks.
The two opposition votes came from U.S. Representative-elect Greg Landsman and the council’s only Republican, Liz Keating. “Yes, we need to diversify our revenue, but not at a time when we have a surplus from stimulus dollars and when Cincinnatians are hurting from inflation and the bad economy,” Keating said. “This is going to hurt the people struggling to make ends meet.”
Although Cincinnati enjoys an unprecedented budget surplus from ARP funding, which will not run out until 2026, and an increase in income tax revenue, Mayor Pureval and the Democrat-dominated city council argue that eliminating the property tax rollback is a necessary step to ensuring long-term economic stability.