No Tax on Real Estate Services

Thousands of REALTORS® responded by sending e-mails and making phone calls to members of the House and Senate urging them to approve a budget that didn’t tax the American Dream.  The result was that both the House and Senate versions and, consequently, the final approved budget did not include any of the real estate-related tax provisions that were contained in Gov. Bob Taft’s original proposal.  Congratulations and many thanks to all of you who took action.

Below is the email correspondence sent by Don Freels, CEO of the Ohio Association of REALTORS®, on Thursday, April 10. 

To: OAR Executive Committee Members
cc: Board Presidents & Association Executives

I am very pleased to confirm that the Ohio House has passed a proposed budget for fiscal years 2004 & 2005 which does NOT include any of Governor Taft's proposals affecting real estate interests. Everything we opposed is out. This includes the tax on brokerage commissions, appraisals, inspections, title search services and property management fees. Moreover, the House package provides for maintaining the rollbacks on real property taxes at their current levels. There is no reduction in the commercial rollback and no cap on the residential rollback.

Additionally, NO increase in document recording fees is included in the budget. We had supported the increase as a means to provide a permanent source of funding for the Ohio Housing Trust Fund. But the House has opted to support the Trust Fund with general revenue, rather than increasing recording fees.

The $48.6 billion two-year package was approved by a 53-46 vote and includes about $2.6 billion in new revenue generated primarily by a temporary one-penny sales-tax increase. Approximately $600 million was trimmed from the Governor's original version of the budget.

Also of note is the fact that the House has opted to maintain funding for local units of government at essentially current levels. This will eliminate pressure to increase taxes and fees at the local level, such as the property conveyance fee, as a means to recoup lost revenue.

In short, although the budget now goes to the Senate, where changes are fully expected to be made, our Association has scored a tremendous victory in successfully convincing the House to reject every new tax on real estate proposed by Governor Taft.

I am convinced that this accomplishment can be attributed to our RPAC program, member response at the grass-roots level (16,000 messages in the first week of our campaign) and our professional lobbying team. We can all take pride in knowing that we have built a very effective and highly respected organization which has successfully met the most serious challenge it has ever faced.

We will keep you informed as this matter is addressed by the Senate.

Don Freels, CEO
Ohio Association of REALTORS®
200 E. Town Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215
614-228-6675
614-228-2601 (fax)
www.ohiorealtors.org