By TOM GERROW
BG Independent News
After recently navigating the Wood County District Public Library through a challenging annual budgeting process and significant changes in employee healthcare coverage, the board of trustees met for the final time in 2025 on Dec. 8. They invited Jay Smith, director of Government and Legal Services at the Ohio Library Council, to join them via a video call for a briefing on recent legislative developments in Columbus.
Smith said that a lot of tax legislation has been introduced in the 136th General Assembly, but that he would focus on some of the bills that passed or had seen movement through the legislature and that could impact library systems and other public services across the state.
“I do want to mention, before we get into some of these conversations around tax legislation, that some of this has been spurred on by a group out of Northeast Ohio that is seeking petition signatures to abolish property taxes here in Ohio,” Smith said.
Smith told the board that the group, Citizens for Property Tax Reform, is pursuing a constitutional amendment and needs to collect more than 413,000 signatures by July of next year to get the amendment on the November ballot.
“If it goes to the ballot and it’s successful, that would eliminate approximately $24 billion that is collected locally through property taxes,” Smith said.
According to Smith, several different provisions during recent budget legislation were put forth to show that the General Assembly was trying to provide some property tax relief to local taxpayers.
Smith highlighted House Bill 96, the state’s operating budget, which passed in June of this year. The bill allows county governments to pass a resolution and institute local “Piggy-back” homestead exemptions and “Piggy-back” owner-occupied credits that mirror the statewide programs. Critically, unlike the statewide programs, local governments are not reimbursed by the state for the lost tax revenue that these “Piggy-back” exemptions and credits incur.
Smith said there is no requirement for counties to participate, and he doesn’t believe that Wood County has acted on this.
Also in the bill was a provision to eliminate replacement levies beginning next year. Unlike levy renewals (which keep reduced millage), replacement levies reset tax reductions, which can lead to tax increases.
“This is something that does impact our public libraries,” Smith said. “If you look back, when we see the levies that are on the ballot, about 10% of those are replacement levies.”
Smith reported on other bills working their way through the General Assembly. Some seek to control the growth of “unvoted” property tax increases that result from inflation, rising property values, and other factors. Other bills strengthen the ability of county budget commissions to reduce or modify local levy collections that are deemed unnecessary or excessive, or to decline to submit a requested library or general health district levy to voters.
The eventual fate of many of these proposed provisions is unclear.
“We’ve seen a lot of legislation get introduced in this General Assembly compared to the last General Assembly,” Smith said. “But I wouldn’t necessarily say we’ve seen a lot of bills ultimately get passed.”
But Smith does expect that tax reform will continue to be a top concern among state legislators in the future.
These legislative changes come on the heels of earlier changes to Ohio’s Public Library Fund (PLF), which modified the funding formula for public libraries. Instead of receiving a percentage of state tax revenue through the PLF, funding is now a specific budget line item. For the coming two fiscal years that will reduce the amount of PLF support flowing to libraries from 2025 levels.
The board also selected officers for the coming year, and there were no changes: Ken Frisch will continue to serve as president, Ellen Dalton as vice president, and Mike Sibbersen as secretary.
Michael Penrod, library director, delivered his final director’s report of 2025 to the board and summarized some of the achievements of library staff over the course of the WCDPL’s 150th year. For his report, he got an assist from Michele Raine, deputy library director, Kelsey Nevius, communications & marketing specialist, Kristin Wetzel, information services coordinator, and Maria Simon, the youth services coordinator.
The board was particularly delighted to learn that Simon will serve on the Caldecott Medal committee next year. The Caldecott Medal is an award given every year by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association.
“It’s a committee of 15 people that selects the most distinguished children’s picture book of the year,” Simon said. “And so, it’s sort of the Oscars.”
“I will be one of 15 librarians throughout the country that will sit down and will read all year round,” Simon said. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun. And it’s with 15 really committed librarians.”
Simon was encouraged to apply by Kathy East, a WCDPL Foundation board member who served on the Caldecott committee twice.
“I have such a wonderful staff here that I felt very confident putting my name in,” Simon said. “Kathy East has been a mentor to me for the last decades of my career. And so I was really, really happy to have her be one of the very first people that I told.”
