By Jeremy Brown

With election day for Summit County around the corner, voters will be deciding whether Issue 2, a proposed county charter amendment, will be put into law. The amendment is designed to protect property owners by capping the unvoted millage growth to no more than 3% annually, in the event that property values increase.

Unvoted millage, also known as inside millage, is a unit of taxation equal to $1 for every $1,000 of a property's valuation. Inside millage goes to essential local government operations and is distributed among county government, schools and local municipalities. In Summit County, the county's portion is used for public safety, such as 9-1-1 dispatching, courts, the county jail and veterans’ services.

Currently, Summit County collects 2.2 mills of inside millage, which equals about $40 million and is designated to critical public safety services. As the law stands now, there is nothing shielding property owners from absorbing the taxes from increasing property valuations. But if the charter amendment is voted into law, it would protect property owners against sudden increases in their tax bills by capping the county's unvoted millage growth to a maximum of 3% annually.

The county's decision to introduce the charter came after property valuations jumped nearly 30% due to recent mass reappraisals. Brian Nelsen, chief of staff for Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro, said although the services provided by the county are important, property owners shouldn’t have to pay unreasonably higher rates for those services based on the fact that the real estate market has increased the value of their home.

“I have yet to see somebody come up with a concrete responsible plan to provide tax payers relief on the property tax front. You’d have to raise another tax, or tax things like oil and gas that maybe aren’t being taxed potentially the way they should be,” Nelsen said. “A lot of this, too, is the result of cuts the state has made over the years for funding schools and local government distribution of the public library distribution.”

Currently, a group of citizens is collecting signatures for a petition that would, if enacted, eliminate all property tax, a move that Nelsen believes could open schools, counties and cities up to lawsuits by bond holders if they default on the bond obligations. He said since the group isn’t “proposing a replacement mechanism,” the proposal “is fraught with a lot of financial implications for the state’s economy as a whole.” 

Shapiro expressed her viewpoint on the Issue 2 charter amendment during her 2025 State of Summit County address on Oct. 1.

“With the state legislature considering dangerous and potentially devastating options like the elimination of certain property taxes impacting communities, levy agencies and schools, and the elimination of all property taxes sought via a citizen-led constitutional amendment, it became clear that Summit County could not stand on the sidelines,” Shapiro said. “In response to these concerns, we are seeking to become the first charter county to have the ability to replace traditional inside millage with charter millage and to impose a cap on the growth of this millage. As we so often do in Summit County, we have identified a proactive measure to better suit the needs of our residents. This is responsible tax reform that limits new growth, while also funding high-quality public safety services. Most importantly, it protects property owners from sudden tax increases in this portion of their tax bill due to sharp valuation increases.”