Rising property taxes and data centers have blown up into the top two issues in this year’s race for Ohio governor. Both major party candidates have released their plans to cut property taxes and halt new data center projects unless certain conditions are met, though both have also been somewhat vague on specifics. In an interview Thursday, the Republican candidate clarified some of what he’s been saying.
Vivek Ramaswamy has said under an order he’d sign on day one, new data centers would have to generate their own power. In an interview for "The State of Ohio", he said excess power created by large facilities would have to go to into a deal with a set price for energy known as a power purchase agreement, which he said will mean "free residential electricity". But ratepayers' bills include costs for distribution, transmission and the electricity itself. Ramaswamy admits that his plan doesn't mean the end of electric bills.
"In the immediate community, the benefit zone of that community, you will actually not pay for electric bills at all, not paid for by taxpayers," Ramaswamy said. When pressed about whether that meant no electric costs on their bills or no electric bills at all, he added, "You'll pay for electricity—the electricity, the power component of the electric bill. You won't pay for electricity. And the reason why is, the excess power that these hyperscalers would require anyway to fund the energy of their data center would have to go directly to a power purchase agreement for that local community."
Ramaswamy also said he's considering requiring trees and vegetation around data centers to cut down on noise and to make data centers more "visually appealing and visually palatable". Ramaswamy said his data center plan would also "prioritize abandoned industrial sites rather than virgin fertile farmland."
His Democratic opponent Amy Acton has also proposed a moratorium on data centers unless they cover 100% of their utility costs, they are built on brownfields and previously developed industrial sites, are constructed exclusively with union labor and other conditions.
On property taxes, Ramaswamy has promised to roll them back to pre-pandemic levels, creating the largest property tax rollback in Ohio history. He added, "I'm also confident that we can do it without hurting local police, fire or schools, which is really important to me."
But while he said he believes this rollback will be "the largest property tax cut anywhere in the United States", he wouldn't put a dollar figure on it, or say how that would affect levies approved by local voters since 2021.
“What I've said is in aggregate. And this is going to be subject to the legislation next year—in aggregate on net," Ramaswamy said. "The net effect is the property tax base is going to be rolled back in aggregate to where it was before the end of the pandemic," Ramaswamy said. "Another thing that I want going to get in that legislation is that we're going to cap the growth from there to make sure that we don't repeat the same mistakes we made this time around. And I think that puts this issue behind us."
And Ramaswamy said he wants to go further in changing the way public education is paid for.
"What I favor is a statewide component of funding that gradually weans us off of exclusive reliance on local property taxation as the main way to fund our schools," Ramaswamy said. "I don't think an education system that is almost exclusively or largely funded exclusively by local property tax revenue is the right long-run model for our state. So I'm not saying that's an immediate change, but that is a long-run goal that I'm oriented towards."
Acton has proposed property tax cuts targeted toward middle-income and older and disabled Ohioans. That would happen through an expansion of the homestead tax exemption and a tax rebate triggered when certain homeowners' property tax bills go up more than 4% in a year. She also said she’ll fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan.
In the interview, Ramaswamy also repeatedly criticized Acton's decision to decline debates. On Wednesday he announced he's accepted two debate invitations, which he said Thursday he thinks is "a basic part of the job interview".
"I just wish Amy Acton would show up," Ramaswamy said. "It would show greater respect to the voters if we could just contrast our views respectfully, but in front of the voters in the way that you traditionally do it. It's sad she hasn't shown up."
Acton's campaign manager Phil Stein said in a statement on Wednesday: “Dr. Acton’s focus is on talking with Ohioans, not platforming a scam artist who spreads baseless lies about her and her family, uses AI to falsely paint her as someone with a substance abuse problem, and shames Dr. Acton for being sexually abused as a child while Vivek stands with predators and abusers. Ramaswamy and his billionaire buddies have spent more than $50 million on disgusting, inaccurate attack ads that have been condemned as the ‘most vile and repulsive lies’ Ohio has ever seen."
Ramaswamy's ads have been on the air since March; Acton's ads first started in July. The overall race is on track to be the most expensive race for governor in state history.
