County auditors and school officials warn House Bill 15 would shift taxes, devastate rural budgets

County auditors and school officials from several Ohio counties told the House Energy Committee at the third hearing on House Bill 15 that the bill, as written, would substantially reduce local tax revenue in communities that host electric generation facilities and shift the burden to other counties.

Paul Knipp, Lawrence County auditor, said HB 15 proposes "eliminating the public utility personal property or PUP tax on electric generation properties while increasing the PUP assessment rate by 4% for electric transmission properties." He provided county-level numbers: the generation facility in Hamilton Township (Rock Hill Local School District) currently has a PUP value "of little over $219,000,000," while total county transmission valuation is about $181,000,000; a 4% transmission increase would not make up the loss, he said, producing a net valuation loss in the county of roughly $30 million and an estimated annual revenue loss in excess of $2.4 million across taxing districts.

Knipp warned the Rock Hill Local School District alone would "stand to lose $1,900,000 annually," and that cuts would affect county general funds, EMS, the board of developmental disabilities, joint vocational schools, township services and the health department. He told the committee that promises to "hold harmless" local governments in prior changes have not always materialized.

Gallia County Auditor Robbie Jackson and Gallia County Local School District Treasurer Jack Webb presented similar figures. Jackson testified the county's generation facilities have a combined PUP value of about $173 million and said the county could lose roughly $3.8 million annually under HB 15. Webb said the Gallia County Local School District would face an estimated $2.7 million annual revenue reduction, which he said would force layoffs and larger class sizes across the district's seven buildings that serve about 2,100 students; Webb said 99% of his district's students are economically disadvantaged.

Lake County Auditor Christopher Galloway told the committee that Perry Nuclear Power Plant generates about $4.4 million in local revenue and that removing that revenue would shift costs to local taxpayers. He said the county spends an estimated $360,000 a year on emergency readiness for the plant and argued that shifting generation taxes to transmission would create a permanent disincentive for counties to host generation.

Across witnesses, the repeated message was that HB 15 in its current form would create "winners and losers" among counties and school districts and impose immediate and material fiscal pressure on small, rural jurisdictions that host generation. Several auditors said they would be open to legislative solutions that explicitly hold current local revenues harmless or provide replacement funding but warned that past hold-harmless promises have sometimes failed to fully replace local revenue streams.

Committee members acknowledged concern and said amendment language is expected; the chair announced plans to prepare a substitute bill and invited amendment proposals by Friday.