Ohio House Bill 920: Property Tax Reduction Factor Explained

Ohio House Bill 920 keeps voted property tax levies from collecting more money just because property values go up. Enacted in 1976 and codified at Ohio Revised Code Section 319.301, the law directs the state to calculate a “tax reduction factor” that lowers the effective rate on each voted levy whenever a reappraisal or triennial update raises property values across a taxing district.¹ If a school district passes a five-million-dollar levy, it collects roughly five million dollars year after year. Not a windfall because the local housing market heated up.

That is the whole idea. What follows is how the mechanism works in practice, what it doesn’t cover, and why your bill can still climb even when HB 920 is doing exactly what it was designed to do.

How the Tax Reduction Factor Works

Each year, the Ohio Tax Commissioner looks at every voted levy in every taxing district and asks how much the effective rate would have to drop for the levy to collect the same dollar amount from existing properties as it did the year before. That percentage is the tax reduction factor.² The commissioner certifies it to the county auditor, who applies it to every parcel.

The calculation only counts “carryover property” — parcels that were on the tax list in both the current and preceding year. New buildings, additions, and parcels that changed classification are excluded, which is how a growing community still generates fresh revenue from development without tripping HB 920.³

Your tax bill shows both numbers. The voted rate is what the ballot language authorized. The effective rate is lower because the reduction factor has been applied. If your home’s value has doubled since a levy was first approved, the effective rate on that levy is roughly half the voted rate. The voted number on paper never changes. The effective number is what actually drives your bill.

Residential and agricultural land (Class I) and everything else (Class II, mostly commercial and industrial) are calculated separately, so a boom in one class doesn’t shift the burden onto the other.¹

What HB 920 Does Not Cover

The law reaches only voted, fixed-rate levies. Several important slices of your property tax bill sit outside it.

Inside Millage

The first 10 mills of property tax that local governments can levy without a public vote is called “inside millage,” authorized by the Ohio Constitution and Ohio Revised Code Section 5705.02.⁴ Because no one voted on it, HB 920 doesn’t apply. Revenue from inside millage rises and falls with property values.

Emergency and Other Fixed-Sum Levies

HB 920 targets levies imposed at a set number of mills. Levies designed to raise a specific dollar amount, regardless of the rate required to get there, are exempt. School district emergency levies are the most common example: their rate adjusts up or down each year to hit the approved dollar target.³

The 20-Mill Floor for Schools

Ohio law stops school district effective rates from falling forever. Once a district’s effective millage on current expense levies reaches 20 mills, the reduction factors stop applying to those levies. From that point on, rising property values do produce rising revenue on those 20 mills.⁵ For homeowners in districts sitting on the floor, the school portion of the bill will climb with reappraisals.

Why Your Bill Still Went Up After the Reappraisal

HB 920 is not a cap on your total tax bill. It’s a cap on how much revenue any single existing voted levy can pull from existing properties. Several forces push bills up even while the reduction factors are working as designed.

New levies. Every time voters approve a new school operating levy, fire levy, or park levy, that tax starts at its full voted rate with no reduction factor yet applied. Communities that pass levies regularly will see steady bill growth regardless of HB 920.
New construction. Additions, renovations, and new buildings sit outside the carryover property calculation, so the value they add generates new revenue HB 920 doesn’t limit.³
Inside millage. The unvoted 10 mills rises with your property value.⁴
The 20-mill floor. If your school district is at the floor, the school portion of the bill tracks property values.⁵
Emergency and fixed-sum levies. These are exempt entirely, so their effective rates move with values.

A noticeably higher post-reappraisal bill is usually several of these stacking together, not a failure of HB 920.

Renewal Levies vs. Replacement Levies

The type of levy on the ballot changes what happens to your effective rate.

A renewal levy reauthorizes an expiring tax at the same voted rate and carries forward all the accumulated reduction factors from prior reappraisals. In practice, a renewal keeps your effective rate roughly where it is. Starting in 2026, school districts face an added constraint: they can only renew a levy at the current effective rate or lower.⁶

A replacement levy worked differently. It replaced one or more existing levies and reset the effective millage back up to nearly the full voted millage, erasing years of HB 920 reductions. When a replacement levy appeared on a ballot, voters were re-approving the tax at its original strength. This matters for reading older tax records; after 2025, taxing authorities can no longer propose new replacement levies.⁶

What Happens When Property Values Drop

HB 920 works in both directions. When values decline, the tax reduction factor is calculated at zero. The effective rate climbs back toward the voted rate, so the levy keeps collecting the same dollar amount it was already collecting. Revenue stays flat rather than falling with the market.³

Revenue only starts falling if values drop below the level that existed when the levy was first imposed. That kind of sustained collapse is rare, but it happened in some Ohio counties during the 2008 to 2010 housing crisis. HB 920 cushions taxing districts from losing revenue in moderate downturns just as it cushions taxpayers from paying more during upswings.

When HB 920 Won’t Help: Challenging Your Valuation

HB 920 protects you from paying more on existing levies when values rise across a district. It does nothing if your individual property is overvalued relative to comparable homes. An inflated valuation means you’re paying a disproportionate share of a revenue-capped levy. The remedy is challenging the valuation, not the levy.

Ohio Revised Code Section 5715.19 lets property owners file a complaint with the county Board of Revision. The deadline is March 31 of the year following the tax year in question, or the date the county closes collection on the first half of real property taxes, whichever is later.⁷ You can challenge the total valuation, the classification, or certain other determinations affecting your parcel.

There is a significant restriction. You generally cannot file a complaint for a tax year if you already filed one within the same interim period, meaning the three-year window between reappraisals or updates. Exceptions exist if something material changed after the earlier complaint: an arm’s-length sale, casualty damage, substantial improvements, or a significant change in occupancy.⁷ If the Board of Revision rules against you, you have 30 days to appeal to either the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals or the Court of Common Pleas.

The reappraisal that triggered the change in your effective rates is also the reappraisal you can challenge. Ohio counties operate on a six-year reappraisal cycle with a triennial update at the midpoint, and those are the moments when HB 920 recalculations and valuation disputes both come into play.⁸ Your county auditor’s website will show when the next one takes effect where you live.

1
Ohio Department of Taxation. Property Tax – Real Property
2
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 319.301
3
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Property Tax Reduction Factor
4
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 5705.02
5
Ohio General Assembly. The 20-Mill Floor – Bill Analysis
6
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Voted Property Tax Levies
7
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 5715.19
8
Ohio Department of Taxation. Property Value Reappraisal and Update Schedule