While Ohio House Republicans were able to override a governor’s veto on what levies can be put on the ballot, it couldn’t muster enough support to do the same to two more consequential property tax vetoes.

The House met Monday in a special session with plans to override three of Gov. Mike DeWine’s property tax vetoes.

But state Reps. David Thomas, R-Jefferson, and Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, said there weren’t enough of their fellow Republicans willing to override two of the vetoes.

“I’m incredibly disappointed and frustrated,” Fischer said.

Thomas, whose district includes parts of Trumbull County, said: “Unfortunately, we did not have the votes to impact tax bills for January” by overriding the two other vetoes.

The veto override passed 61-28. It needed 60 votes in the Ohio House to pass. All Republicans — except state Rep. Scott Oelslager of North Canton — voted for the override with all Democrats voting against it. Ten House members didn’t attend, including three Republicans.

The veto override would eliminate the ability of school districts and local government entities to seek replacement or emergency levies from voters as well as ban school districts from seeking fixed-sum emergency levies, substitute emergency levies and renewal levies with increases.

The override doesn’t help homeowners in “any of our counties with (tax) bills this January,” Thomas said. “It doesn’t decrease funding whatsoever in January. I think we should go much further. I think many of us do.”

“It is a healthy, transparent piece of legislation, but it doesn’t do anything to help property owners now,” Fischer said. “I’m disappointed we weren’t able to do anything of consequence for property taxpayers now.”

The Senate likely won’t meet on overriding this veto until it returns to regular sessions in October. The Senate was waiting to see what the House would do Monday before calling for a session prior to that. A veto override needs 20 votes in the 33-member Senate.

The Legislature has until Dec. 31, 2026, to override vetoes. DeWine vetoed 67 line items in the state budget with the Legislature having no plans to review anything but the property tax issues.

One of the other vetoes that was supposed to be considered Monday gives county budget commissions — made up of the county auditor, treasurer and prosecutor — control over tax rates and levies.

The commission would be permitted to unilaterally cut property tax rates if revenues exceed expenditures, even if voters approved ballot initiatives for that funding.

Also, the House initially planned to vote Monday to override a provision DeWine vetoed requiring school districts to include emergency and substitute levies in their 20-Mill Floor, which guarantees they receive at least 20 mills of funding even if they are below that amount. This would have put about 200 of the state’s 611 school districts off the floor.

Thomas said he believed both of those bills had support from 59 of the Republicans at Monday’s session.

There wasn’t clarity if the House failed to override the vetoes on Monday if it could try to do it again so it was decided to postpone those votes with plans to take it up in October, Thomas said. Of the three Republicans absent Monday, Thomas said he believes at least one would vote in favor of overrides.

“What we approved was still a big step, but I’m disappointed,” Thomas said. “We needed to do much, much more and we’re working on other bills.”

He added Monday: “Those who enjoy and benefit from property tax spikes, they won the battle today.”

Thomas said the Legislature is unable to come to agreements on “much deeper reform and relief.”

Fischer said even if the Republican-controlled Legislature overrides DeWine’s vetoes in October, it won’t impact property taxes until the second half of 2026.

State Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, was absent from Monday’s session as she had already planned a family vacation. She opposes overriding all of the vetoes.

As for the one that passed in the House, McNally said the Republican “talking points are people aren’t smart enough to know what they’re voting on.”

McNally said: “This stuff hasn’t been vetted. Don’t just randomly throw (expletive) into law. It got rammed through by people who think they’re smarter than people on the ground. I still don’t know where they think people will get property tax relief” because school districts and local governments will have to request property tax increases.

McNally said it wasn’t smart of Republicans to call a session when legislators had already planned vacations. McNally said she expects Republicans to seek overrides on the two other items tabled Monday at a later date.

“They will try to do this again,” she said. “It’s not governing in a responsible manner. It’s governing with a box of crayons. We (expletive) knew this crisis was happening six years ago and they sat on their asses until now.”

DeWine, a Republican, also vetoed a provision passed by the Legislature to limit school districts to have only up to 40% of their annual operating budget in their cash reserves. That was estimated to save $2.17 billion in property taxes, and would have had the largest impact.

There was a provision that the 40% limit could be exceeded if the money is kept in a separate fund for construction and maintenance projects.

Thomas said there isn’t enough support in the House to override that veto.

DeWine said in his July 1 veto message that rising property taxes are a major concern, but “the provisions in this budget would put an undue, very abrupt (and) significant problem (on) our local school districts. We have to find solutions to our property tax problem.”

In his veto message, DeWine said he would create a property tax reform working group. He announced July 10 that Bill Seitz, a former Ohio House and Senate member, and Pat Tiberi, the president and CEO of the Ohio Business Roundtable and a former congressman, would chair the group.

On Monday, after the House veto override, DeWine announced the nine other members. None are from the Mahoning Valley.

DeWine said the group will first meet July 24 and he wants a report “with concrete proposals” by Sept. 30.