Restoring Prosperity
The Greater Ohio Policy Center Blog
A study looking into property tax appraisal and assessments in Franklin County, OH determined that properties in low-income, Black-majority neighborhoods are regularly overvalued for tax purposes. The result is that Black homeowners pay more in property taxes relative to the sales values of their homes, while homeowners in majority-white neighborhoods were regularly undervalued.
Five years ago, Columbus was awarded a $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in the “Smart City Challenge”; an initiative that was conceived as an opportunity to jump-smart the transition to a more technologically-advanced transportation network within a midsize U.S. city.
Transit is an invaluable resource in low- and moderate-income communities, connecting residents to job centers and services that may otherwise be inaccessible without a car. However, there are concerns that significant investments in transit, particularly rail transit, may increase property values and displacement pressures on area residents.
July 1 marks the beginning of the State of Ohio's new fiscal year, with the enactment of the new biennial budget. A state budget always reflects what the priorities of the state are, and the most recent budget includes a number of issues Greater Ohio had been tracking throughout the legislative process.
