Letters: Why Ohio seniors who have downsized deserve to have their taxes frozen
Many seniors have downsized
Re "Ohio may freeze seniors' property taxes," Sept. 14: Kudos to Representatives Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati, and Thomas Hall, R-Madison Township, and a group of bipartisan lawmakers for attempting to design a law that will freeze property taxes for Ohio homeowners over 70.
More: Ohio lawmakers launch plan to freeze property tax bills for seniors
Before this gets any further in the approval process, however, they may want to speak at length with people who are in the group of residents who are over 70 and make less than $70,000 per year who have recently downsized.
A portion of this bill indicates persons in that age and salary category must also have owned their current property for at least ten years.
Many thousands of people in that category are now leaving properties they've lived in for decades, buying smaller condos, renting apartments, or moving into senior-living facilities.
Senior citizens who have downsized and purchased condos are still paying property taxes and will be eliminated from this tax break because of the ten-year rule. Please rethink this and settle on a tax break that will benefit senior citizens who have recently left a long-held property and are still paying property taxes on a condo.
Letters: Why those 65 and older, childless should not have to pay school property
Susan Kuhn Melvin, Worthington
More: The problem is not how your property is valued. There's a more expense issue at play.
Our parks were sold right under our noses
It seems a cruel irony that during Climate Week, when millions of people worldwide are demanding that we move away from fossil fuels to save our planet, that instead, in Ohio, the Oil and Gas Land Management Committee, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Legislature, and Gov. Mike DeWine are advocating the opposite.
If I may go Old Testament on ‘em: they’re “selling” our state parks to the fossil fuel industry “for a mess of pottage.”
They intend to allow fracking in our state parks — oil and gas companies can nominate ANY parcel of public land to be fracked.
More: Ohio panel votes to let companies bid for rights to drill underneath public land
Last December, during a lame-duck session (when they hoped no one would notice), the Ohio Legislature added a rider to House Bill 507 — a bill regulating the sale of baby chicks — which mandated that state agencies allow fracking on public lands.
Evidence shows fracking is toxic in every direction (to both humans and animals).
Fracking degrades the environment— deforestation, contaminants in the water supply. It uses excessive amounts of water—depleting lakes, streams, ponds, underground aquifers, etc.
It’s a bad idea to allow this method of extraction anywhere, but allowing it on public lands, in our state parks, really takes the biscuit.
They don’t allow the public to speak at their ‘hearings’ (where’s Marcel Marceau when you need him?); to take action against this insanity, you need to write to DeWine, The Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Committee, and the ODNR.
Who benefits? Certainly not the citizens of Ohio.
Candy Canzoneri, Westerville
Get the flu vaccine
Last year, Ohio saw 35 times more hospitalizations for the flu virus than it saw in 2021.
Getting the flu vaccine reduces the risk of flu illness by 40-60% and could save your child a trip to the hospital.
The fall and winter season is the most common time to see children ending up in the doctor’s office or the hospital for viruses such as influenza.
Getting the flu shot this year is the best way for parents to protect their children from illness.
As a pediatrician, I will see many cases of the flu that could have been prevented if they had gotten the vaccine.
Parents must do their part to protect their children and keep them healthy in the coming months by getting themselves and their children vaccinated against the flu.
Dr. Abigail Parro, Blacklick
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio should freeze taxes for seniors who have downsized
