Hamilton County Property Tax Bill Could Jump $930 This Fall

Hamilton County commissioners approved a larger children’s services levy one week after Cincinnati Public Schools placed a new 7-mill property tax on the ballot.

Homeowners inside the CPS district could pay about $366 annually per $100,000 of property value under both measures if both pass.

Not every Hamilton County property owner faces both levies. That distinction matters for the actual Hamilton County property tax picture this fall. The children’s services measure is countywide: a four-year, 5.61-mill levy commissioners approved Monday. The CPS levy applies only inside Cincinnati Public Schools boundaries, a smaller footprint than Hamilton County as a whole. That’s the same CPS property tax levy this outlet covered when the board rescinded its earned income tax and replaced it with a property tax instead. Homeowners who live in the county but outside CPS boundaries will vote on the children’s services levy only.

Commission President Stephanie Summerow Dumas and Commissioner Denise Driehaus voted to approve the children’s services levy amount. Vice President Alicia Reece abstained. County officials describe the proposal as a 38% levy increase. The estimated homeowner charge rises from about $82 to about $121 per $100,000 of value, however. That’s an increase of roughly $39, or nearly 48%. The two figures measure different things, however. One describes the levy rate itself; the other describes the actual dollar impact on a homeowner’s Hamilton County property tax bill.

What the Children’s Services Levy Actually Funds

The existing levy pays for Hamilton County Job and Family Services’ child welfare work. That includes a 24/7 abuse and neglect hotline and emergency placements. Foster care, kinship care support, group home treatment, and family reunification services round out the list. JFS serves more than 13,000 children each year. The county says the number of children in its care has grown 19% over the past four years. Out-of-home placement costs specifically have risen 92% since the current levy passed in 2021.

The county’s own Tax Levy Review Committee determined JFS needs $144 million a year to sustain base-level, mandated services. The committee’s own recommendation was a 6.57-mill levy, costing $157 per $100,000 of home value. That would have raised close to the full $144 million, therefore. Commissioners approved a smaller 5.61-mill measure instead, about a 15% reduction from the committee’s recommended millage. Driehaus described that, however, as cutting the proposed increase roughly in half. “We had a recommendation, and it was a solid recommendation addressing the needs for kids in the community,” Driehaus said after the vote. “We went back to the administration and said, ‘Can we go lower?'” She added: “We cut it in half.”

JFS already cut $36 million from its 2026 budget to stretch its reserves into next year. Driehaus said the county would lose the levy’s dedicated revenue when the current measure expires at year’s end. “If we don’t pass the levy, we go to zero,” she said, referring to that funding source rather than the county’s underlying legal obligation to keep providing mandated services. “We don’t go back to where we started.” That’s dramatic, she said, and it would be a catastrophe for the county.

What This Means for a $100,000 Home

The approved children’s services levy raises the Hamilton County property tax cost from about $82 to about $121 per $100,000 of home value. That’s an increase of roughly $39 a year for existing county taxpayers. It’s also separate from the CPS property tax levy this outlet has already covered. That levy costs $245 per $100,000 of home value and applies only inside CPS boundaries.

For a homeowner inside the CPS district, the combined total across both measures works out to about $366 per $100,000 of home value. That holds if both pass. At Cincinnati’s typical home value of $254,955, per Zillow, that’s roughly $930 a year total. That figure covers both levies combined. It’s worth reading alongside this outlet’s look at what CPS already spends per pupil, since that context shapes how residents weigh a second tax increase on the same ballot. Homeowners already pay the existing children’s services levy, however. The actual new increase over their current bill is closer to $724 a year instead. That’s about $625 from the new CPS levy plus roughly $99 from the children’s services increase, or about $60 a month in genuinely new cost.

The Case For and Against

The case for the increase rests on services state law requires the county to provide regardless of funding. Ohio’s own funding record is part of that case, too, so the state’s contribution matters here. The average state nationally covers 42% of child welfare costs. Ohio covers just 18%, second-lowest in the country, according to the Tax Levy Review Committee. “I’m putting out a clarion call to the state of Ohio to help with these quality of life issues,” Summerow Dumas said. She noted the state’s rainy day fund sits at $3.94 billion even as it asks counties to fund mandated services locally.

Reece raised a sharper objection tied to timing and trust. The county approved a deal worth $350 million with the Cincinnati Bengals a year earlier. Reece argues commissioners should have known about the JFS shortfall before that deal, not after. She proposed an alternative instead: a smaller 4.78-mill levy, about $91 per $100,000 of home value, subsidized by a portion of the stadium sales tax revenue. “Let’s cut the billionaires,” Reece said, referring to redirecting stadium-linked revenue instead of leaning fully on homeowners. County attorneys and bond counsel, in fact, determined that redirecting stadium sales tax funds would violate state law. Reece disputes that reading. She says other attorneys told her the law’s use of “primarily” leaves room for partial redirection. Her proposal, still, found no support among the other two commissioners.

What Comes Next

Both levies go before voters on the same November ballot as separate questions. Voters can approve one measure, reject one, approve both or reject both. But for homeowners inside the CPS district, approval of both would place roughly $366 in annual levy charges on every $100,000 of property value, about $930 on a home valued near Cincinnati’s current typical price.