Thomas Suddes

Reforming or abolishing any of the Statehouse-imposed property burdens on Ohio homeowners would step on the toes of Capitol Square lobbyists who cheerlead for developers and other real-estate speculators. And a legislator who wants to stay in his Statehouse hammock knows better than to buck fat cats’ errand boys and girls, writes Thomas Suddes in his column today.

If an Ohio voter wants a legislator to ardently work, as a public-interest state representative, for the needs and hopes of roughly 119,000 fellow Ohioans (or, if a state senator, for roughly 362,000), then General Assembly term limits have got to go. Otherwise, nothing will change in Ohio. Nothing, writes Thomas Suddes in his column today.

Ohio homeowners are being crushed by rising property taxes because state lawmakers refuse to fix the problems—bloated school bureaucracy, underfunded public schools, unconstitutional vouchers and runaway tax breaks for businesses, writes columnist Thomas Suddes.

Ohio needs to keep residents, not hemorrhage them; make home-to-work and home-to-school drives safer; and kick out the traffic jams in Central Ohio. An Interstate 73 would only further bloat traffic and, combined with the General Assembly’s 19th-century politics, nudge even more Ohioans to leave their state. That’d be an investment in the past, not the future, writes Thomas Suddes in his column today.

While Sen. Jon Husted touts a rural hospital funding amendment he added to Trump’s H.R. 1, his vote for the bill still threatens Medicaid coverage for tens of thousands of Ohioans, writes columnist Thomas Suddes.

Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman seemingly would want their granddaughters and grandsons to inherit a better world than they did. But given inaction on property taxes, a voter has to wonder, columnist Thomas Suddes writes.

The creation and steady increases in Ohio’s tax subsidies for non-public schools has been Statehouse government by stealth: Start small, then, budget-by-budget, year by year, divert more and more public-school money for the benefit of private schools. The resulting financial squeeze on public school districts is a big reason why skyrocketing property taxes are hammering Ohio homeowners –- property tax burdens the General Assembly is making heavier by steadily diverting public school money to private schools, writes Thomas Suddes in his column today.

Sure, maybe Gov. DeWine should have vetoed much more of this furtively fashioned budget. But at least the governor wants to move Ohio forward. That’s saying a lot at today’s Statehouse, where some people seem to long for a state run by old white guys who think that Ohio, around, say, 1955, was just dandy. It was. For them, writes Thomas Suddes in his column today.

Columnist Thomas Suddes notes that while all but one of Ohio's congressional Republicans backed the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act and its Medicaid cuts, those cuts will imperil health care access in their small-town Ohio districts.

Given legislative stalling on property tax reform, today’s Ohio voters are ornery. An Ohio that has supported Donald Trump three times might well decide to abolish property taxes – unless the General Assembly stops goofing off, writes Thomas Suddes in his column today.