For Ohio property owners and renters
Know what the levy costs your house.
Paste the tax question from your ballot. Mill by Mill finds the rate, how long it runs and what it pays for, then works out what it costs a home like yours, a year and a month. Every step is shown. It takes no side.
The maths is three lines long.
Ohio law sets every part of it. Nothing is estimated except what the ballot itself estimates.
- 1
Taxable value is 35%.
The county appraises your home. Ohio taxes 35% of that figure. A $150,000 home has a taxable value of $52,500.
- 2
A mill is a dollar per thousand.
One mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value: 52.5 dollars a year on that home.
- 3
So a mill is $35 per $100,000.
Ohio ballots now print the cost "for each $100,000" of appraised value. Multiply by your value over $100,000. Done.
Work it out for your own numbers Read the method and its sources
Six phrases worth reading twice.
The same mills can mean a new tax or one you already pay. The ballot says which; these are the words to look for.
- Additional
- A new tax. If it passes, your bill goes up by about this amount.
- Renewal
- A tax you already pay, asked again for another term. Passing it does not raise the bill; failing it ends that tax.
- Renewal and increase
- Part continues, part is new. The increase is the new part.
- Bond issue
- Borrowing, usually for buildings, repaid by a tax whose mills are an average over the life of the bonds.
- Continuing period of time
- No end date. It runs until it is repealed.
- Effective rate
- Why a renewal's dollar figure is often lower than its mills suggest: older levies collect less from homes than their voted rate.
Levy File
Every question on your ballot, on one sheet.
Keep each election's questions against your home (or every property you own) and see the total split three ways: what is new if it passes, what simply continues, and what is partly new. Print a one-page Ballot-day sheet to take with you. A private link opens it; no account, no email, no name.
Ballot-day sheet Home, $150,000
| Question | A year |
|---|---|
| School operating levy New | $157.50 |
| Township renewal Continues | $210.00 |
| College renewal + increase Partly new | $100.50 |
Reading is free. Keeping it is $1.95.
Free
$0
- The Ballot Reader for every question you paste
- Levy Math and the income-tax maths
- A Levy File for one property, 3 questions, printable sheet
Levy File Pass
$1.95 a month
or $19.50 a year (two months free)
- Up to 12 properties
- 20 questions per property
- Ballot-day sheet for each, CSV download
Free during preview. Payments are not switched on yet, so every Levy File has the Pass limits now, at no charge. Nothing on this site asks for a card.