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Sarah Wolf - Ax Oh Tax · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: Seven oh six, everybody five KARRICB Talk Station by coming
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  Speaker 1: Fish are on a Happy Monday and welcoming to the
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  Speaker 1: fixty five parase Morning Show. A great opportunity to talk
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  Speaker 1: to Sarah Wolf. She's with ax Ohio Tax. You can
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  Speaker 1: find them online at axoh tax dot com. And of
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  Speaker 1: course we're talking about elmiting the property tax in the
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  Speaker 1: state of Ohio, and this is an easy place for
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  Speaker 1: you to figure out how you can help, how you
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  Speaker 1: can sign the petition if you're interested, where they are
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  Speaker 1: in terms of signature gathering. Sarah Wolf, it's great to
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  Speaker 1: have you on the fifty five Caarrisee Morning Show.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome, good morning, Thank you so much for having me.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the greatest things I think about your
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  Speaker 1: website is the fact page answers to your question the
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  Speaker 1: questions which pop up all the time. Now you know,
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  Speaker 1: I will tell you upfront, Sarah. Conceptually, you know, just
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  Speaker 1: sort of looking at it. I love the idea of
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  Speaker 1: limiting property taxes. There are other states who've done that
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  Speaker 1: and they've been able to succeed in doing it, So
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  Speaker 1: how come we can't have that here in Ohio. The
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  Speaker 1: retort from that is, oh my god. The you know,
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  Speaker 1: income tax is gonna have to go up through the roof,
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  Speaker 1: or sale tax is gonna have to go up in
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  Speaker 1: the roof. Obviously, there needs to be a replacement for
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  Speaker 1: the mechanism for funding like local fire schools and all that,
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  Speaker 1: and people think it's all going to get shut down.
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  Speaker 1: So I've always viewed this as an opportunity to force
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  Speaker 1: the representatives and senators in the state about how to
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  Speaker 1: actually do something and come up with solutions. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: insofar as school funding is concerned, Sarah, you know what it.
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  Speaker 1: I know it that Supreme Court here in Ohio declared
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  Speaker 1: the school funding mechanism is unconstitutional, and here we are
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  Speaker 1: decades later with no change. I don't know how that
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  Speaker 1: can be brought about, but exactly, you know, just turning
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  Speaker 1: to the school issue alone, Sarah, what is it going
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  Speaker 1: to look like if there are enough signatures, this is
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  Speaker 1: on the ballot and people vote for it. What about
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  Speaker 1: the school Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, first of all, we don't have to touch
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  Speaker 2: a single teacher anything to do with the classroom if
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  Speaker 2: we just get rid of some of this floated administration.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we've got superintendents making three and four hundred
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  Speaker 2: thousand dollars a year, and not just superintendents, but you
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  Speaker 2: can go to gov salaries dot com and look up
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  Speaker 2: there's like an arm me of administrators compliance officers. They
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  Speaker 2: are all making six figures and they never set foot
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  Speaker 2: in the classroom. So we can start there and never
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  Speaker 2: touch a single teacher. But that's why, this is why
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  Speaker 2: it matters who our next governor is, whether the amendment
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  Speaker 2: passes or not. And what I wanted to talk to
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  Speaker 2: you about is we did get a meeting with the
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  Speaker 2: vike Ramaswami.
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  Speaker 1: You went really really well, Yeah, I was going to
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  Speaker 1: pivot over to that. I just want to the more
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  Speaker 1: confounding issues are really how is it going to look
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  Speaker 1: if the property tax because it does impact so many
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  Speaker 1: areas of funding. What is the solution going to be?
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  Speaker 1: But we can pivot over to the big rama Swaman
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  Speaker 1: and what his reaction was to this concept is he
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  Speaker 1: embraced the idea of eliminating it. Is he like it
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  Speaker 1: sounds good?
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  Speaker 2: But what did he say, Well, he was he was
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  Speaker 2: very encouraging. Well, first of all, we got the meeting
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  Speaker 2: not through any politician or the Central Committee, but it
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  Speaker 2: was entirely through the grassroots. Mean, my friend and she's
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  Speaker 2: a great patriot, Lyndacaddle. She's been facilitating these meetings with
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  Speaker 2: the DEC and the grassroots Conservatives, and there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of them, and I only had a few minutes to
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  Speaker 2: sort of introduce them at that meeting with everybody to
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  Speaker 2: our cause, but I wasn't able to lay out three
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  Speaker 2: points that everybody needs to know about our movement. Number One,
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  Speaker 2: property taxes in Ohio are so much worse than any
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  Speaker 2: politician or the news are going to say. You've probably
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  Speaker 2: heard this thirty percent number. Taxes went up thirty percent
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  Speaker 2: for a lot of people who was fifty sixty seventy
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  Speaker 2: two hundred and four hundred percent, double and triple increases
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  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three for about a third of the homeowners.
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  Speaker 2: And that's mostly little moderate to low income neighborhood, so
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  Speaker 2: it's really bad. And then the second thing that I
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  Speaker 2: told him was that our petition didn't come out of nowhere.
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  Speaker 2: For years, we've been trying to get reform passed and
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  Speaker 2: the state legislature refused to act. And we always get
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  Speaker 2: asked that, well, why did you go right to a polishment, Why,
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  Speaker 2: you know, start with no taxes on seniors or coming
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  Speaker 2: up and well we tried that and the state just
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  Speaker 2: played the fiddle while help ownership burn to the ground.
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  Speaker 2: And then finally the third one, and this is important.
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  Speaker 2: You can sign the petition and not vote right of
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  Speaker 2: vosh property taxes. There's two things going on here. You
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  Speaker 2: know a lot of people are signing. You know, even
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  Speaker 2: we even got some county employees to sign, just to
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  Speaker 2: get it on the ballot and let the people decide
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  Speaker 2: how they're going to be governed. And so we need
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  Speaker 2: four hundred and thirteen thousand signatures. What have we got
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  Speaker 2: a million?
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  Speaker 1: Right?
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  Speaker 3: You know?
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  Speaker 2: So just please sign it to get it on the
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  Speaker 2: ballot and stand with the people. And you already gave
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  Speaker 2: the website Axohio text find out where to sign.
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  Speaker 1: So did v vic Ronaldsomy address some of the concerns
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  Speaker 1: I think legitimate concerns like well, what happens if the
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  Speaker 1: ones you know, how are how are schools going to
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  Speaker 1: get find out? What about my local police and fire
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  Speaker 1: department all the folks that rely on that. So did
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  Speaker 1: he have anything to say about the devil and the
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  Speaker 1: details if I mean boil it down to.
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  Speaker 2: Something like that, Yes, wee, So we talked. We've told
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  Speaker 2: them we need his help not just with property taxes,
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  Speaker 2: but just with the whole way of thinking in Columbus.
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  Speaker 2: If you notice everything that comes out against our meeting,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sorry against our movement with abolishing property taxes.
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  Speaker 2: It's all about how it affects the government, with no
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  Speaker 2: acknowledgment about what's already happened to the people. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: one guy was saying, oh, property taxes. You know, it's
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  Speaker 2: one leg of the three legged stool of state funding.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we can't even afford a three legged stool
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  Speaker 2: because of the property taxes. You've got to get on
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  Speaker 2: that side of the equation. And the other one is
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  Speaker 2: there'll be a hole in the state budget that we
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  Speaker 2: can't fill. Well, we got pretty much a shotgun blast
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  Speaker 2: through our finances. We need to start on that side
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  Speaker 2: of the equation, come up with something that's affordable, and
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  Speaker 2: then you can talk about what services that fuse.
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  Speaker 1: But this starves the problem, forcing them to make cuts
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  Speaker 1: that you and I would advocate for all the time
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  Speaker 1: and have been screaming about the size of government for years.
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  Speaker 3: So this is absolutely a red state and we and
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  Speaker 3: he seemed very surprised by that that in a red state.
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  Speaker 3: This big government beast has occurred in Ohio, and he
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  Speaker 3: was he was he seemed very surprising. And and the
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  Speaker 3: fact that we were shut out, I mean, you know
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  Speaker 3: that our current governor wouldn't even meet with us. And
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  Speaker 3: we had that uh, he had that tax, the property tax,
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  Speaker 3: the force tax, force whatever it was.
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  Speaker 2: We call it, to stop the petitions working group. But
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  Speaker 2: there were no longowners on it, regular homeowners. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you've got to talk to the people. You've got to
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  Speaker 2: find out what the people. And that's the kind of
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  Speaker 2: relationship that we want with our next governor. Because whether
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  Speaker 2: he did not sign his time this time, he did
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  Speaker 2: say to keep going. He didn't insult us or try
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  Speaker 2: to talk without of any of it. And everything he does,
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  Speaker 2: you know, obviously he's running for governor and so he
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  Speaker 2: has to consider things. Every movie mixed from every side.
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  Speaker 2: But he's very encouraging on that front. And I don't
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  Speaker 2: know he still might sign, but he I think he
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  Speaker 2: was surprised, and he was taking notes. He had his
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  Speaker 2: staff there taking notes, and he kept saying, did you
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  Speaker 2: get that?
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  Speaker 1: Did you get that?
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  Speaker 2: So this was the first time I think you heard
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  Speaker 2: the whole story from our side. Because he's only been
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  Speaker 2: hearing from the politicians about it.
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  Speaker 1: Well, good, I'm glad it was willing to meet with you.
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  Speaker 1: I'm glad at least he was, you know, at least
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  Speaker 1: grace is some measure of reform along property taxes, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the idea that some senior could get foreclosed out of
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  Speaker 1: their home after owning it. You know, I mean, this
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  Speaker 1: is the real big insult in the room. It's like
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  Speaker 1: the greatest illustration. Are you telling me you're going to everything?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? God, everything he worked for in the act that
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  Speaker 2: we're complaining about a cable bill. You know, this is
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  Speaker 2: our homes and everything. So I mean a lot of
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  Speaker 2: people say, well, we don't need a signature, and he
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  Speaker 2: can't veto it. It's an amendment. But I think it
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  Speaker 2: does matter who the next governor is, because if it passes,
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  Speaker 2: we don't want won'tgoing back in history the Boston Tea Party,
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  Speaker 2: right at what happened after the Boston Tea Party, the
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  Speaker 2: English passed the Intolerable Acts. You know, they they were
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  Speaker 2: being punitive, And we don't want a governor or a
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  Speaker 2: government that's going to punish us for the people rising
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  Speaker 2: up and fixing this problem. Ourselves. Well, that's the one thing,
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  Speaker 2: and then if it doesn't pass. We did talk at
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  Speaker 2: length about the reforms. John Kuessnik was there. Oh, he
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  Speaker 2: gives a barnburner if you ever want to have on
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  Speaker 2: your show. He's a Lake County commissioner and a tax professor.
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  Speaker 2: So he was talking about some of the other reforms.
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  Speaker 2: Now we're seeing abolishment through to the end, but if
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't happen, we want the next best thing. And
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  Speaker 2: the good thing about our petition is now that we've
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  Speaker 2: gone for all the marbles of these reforms that we've
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  Speaker 2: proposed in the past are looking pretty good to them. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: this had to go.
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  Speaker 1: This is why I like what you were doing. We've
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  Speaker 1: been complained about it every years. They haven't done anything
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  Speaker 1: or wine veto the provisions and the budget that might
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  Speaker 1: have addressed some of it. To throw it over to
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  Speaker 1: this tax reform group, I'm not quite sure what happened there.
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  Speaker 1: Real quick before we park company because we've got another
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  Speaker 1: guest coming up, and I Sarah Wolfe. I appreciate what
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  Speaker 1: you're doing. X ax O h t A x x
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  Speaker 1: Ohio taxxohtax dot com. You are obviously a grassroots organizations
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  Speaker 1: a loosely knit group of people who've gotten together to
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  Speaker 1: put signatures out there or to get signatures for the
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  Speaker 1: ballot initiative? Is there going to be and do you
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  Speaker 1: see an organized, moneyed opposition to your efforts? I imagine
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  Speaker 1: the teachers Union, yes, but who else.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, they're all going to come out, Yeah, yeah, there are.
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  Speaker 2: We're we're using our tax dollars. Of course, that's that's
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  Speaker 2: the kick in the head about it. You know, they're
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  Speaker 2: gonna they're gonna come out with commercials and everything like this.
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  Speaker 2: But don't underestimate the people. I mean I went down
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  Speaker 2: to get signatures when taxes were property taxes were due
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  Speaker 2: down at the county building and people were running up
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  Speaker 2: to us. I mean we got one hundred and forty
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  Speaker 2: four signatures and three hours. That was like a signature
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  Speaker 2: a minute we were getting and people were just all
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  Speaker 2: fired up, and it's all it's both sides of the aisle,
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  Speaker 2: which is a beautiful thing. You know, Just don't underestimate people,
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  Speaker 2: because I think we don't. You know, anything can happen
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  Speaker 2: in politics, but I think if it gets on the ballot,
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  Speaker 2: it's going to fast.
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  Speaker 1: Four hundred thirteen, four hundred and eighty eight signatures need
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  Speaker 1: to be based upon the calculations. The goal get one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty percent of those, because some of them
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  Speaker 1: aren't always good. Behind this effort, Sarah Wolfe asohtax dot com.
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  Speaker 1: Check it out online. If you're interested, there's an opportunity
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  Speaker 1: for your to join in the fund. Sarah, I am
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  Speaker 1: anxiously awaiting to see how this turns out one way
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  Speaker 1: or another. It has definitely become an interesting conversation. No,
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  Speaker 1: thank you, Sarah for what you are doing. Seven seventeen
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  Speaker 1: Christopher Smith