By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
The Truth Contributor
All that glisters is not gold.
– William Shakespeare
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus provides a much-needed meal in the wilderness for approximately 20,000 individuals – 5,000 hungry men and their families – without access to food. But the act of feeding them was not merely a compassionate kumbaya.
Biblical scholar Ched Myers reminds us that this action was a bold, grassroots protest against a system that exploits the masses while feeding the three percent who made up the powerful elite and, therefore, extremely political. By calling out a system that fed a select few while forgetting the many, Jesus was doing more than just breaking bread.
Fast forward two millennia.
Under the pretense of “tax relief,” Citizens for Property Tax Reform is collecting signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to eliminate all Ohio property taxes. On the surface, the proposal’s appeal glistens like a treasure trove of sparkling gems. Who doesn’t want lower taxes, especially since the proposal arrives so soon after the Lucas County property reassessment fiasco, where thousands of homeowners were stunned by skyrocketing property valuations.
However, let’s be clear. Marketed as “tax relief,” the amendment would actually dismantle vital funds for public transportation, schools, libraries, parks and emergency services, leaving our communities scrambling to find a replacement within a year. This proposal is tax evasion, not tax relief.
This proposal comes as the Trump administration readies the biggest tax cuts for billionaires in American history. The wealthiest in Ohio enjoy extraordinary loopholes, record profits, and little accountability while working and unwealthy Ohio families face not only rising housing, food, and transportation costs but also crushing healthcare expenses, mounting student debt, skyrocketing childcare costs, inflated utility bills and job insecurity – all compounded by shrinking safety nets and systemic disinvestment. And now, we’re supposed to think that eliminating the property tax, one of the few taxes that requires the wealthiest to pay proportionately, is a step toward justice?
It just isn’t. It’s a modern take on empire economics or Herodism.
During Jesus’s time, Rome, too, extracted resources from colonized low and working-income areas like Judea, redirecting grain, labor, and resources to enrich elite cities such as Rome while leaving local communities hungry and poor. For the masses, grain was a staple food – used to make bread, which was the “staff of life” and the difference between eating and going hungry. Yet, despite producing the grain, the peasant class could not consume it. They lacked access to and could not afford the very food they made. Imperial banquets were brimming with extravagance, while landless laborers lived hand to mouth.
So, the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Today, they are food deserts and schools that receive insufficient funding despite growing needs. They are the clinics that are underfunded or have closed in South Toledo or the East Side, or reduced funding for mental health and addiction recovery services for those living in the Junction neighborhood and North Toledo. Meanwhile, billionaires hoard wealth or use tax windfalls to purchase third homes. At the same time, Black and Brown communities are forced to bear the cost of disinvestment.
So, the proposed amendment perpetuates an age-old system that penalizes working and poor people while favoring the wealthy. Notably, this plan to abolish property taxes lacks a strategy to replace the lost revenues.
The repercussions will not be shared equally. Wealthy suburban communities with robust donor bases and private endowments can weather the storm. However, the burden will fall primarily on vulnerable and working-class neighborhoods and libraries that serve as vital centers for learning, digital access, and youth development.
After-school programs that nurture safety, creativity and academic growth will be slashed. Public transportation that connects low-income residents to jobs, healthcare, and groceries will also be dismantled. Expect our metro parks, nationally recognized for their excellence and accessibility, to become neglected or sold off. Child protection services that shield the most vulnerable are already strained to the breaking point may collapse.
This script is not new to us. Only the names have changed. The empire is still there.
Yet, Jesus didn’t remain silent in the face of unjust empire economics; the same vision and action are needed today. As I told my congregants this past Sunday, ‘Communities and churches need to transition from charity to advocacy and from merely surviving to changing the system where we all can flourish.’
Therefore, we must insist that our leaders invest in people instead of focusing only on profits; contribute to, rather than deprive, the common good; and, most importantly, understand that property taxes symbolize our mutual commitment to one another.
The real question, then, is not whether we will pay taxes but whether we will build a society where everyone has enough, or will we allow the empire to wallow in obscene prosperity while the masses suffer?
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at drdlperryman@enterofhopebaptist.org