EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in a series looking at what Northeast Ohio officials, communities, and agencies experienced in 2025 and what they are facing in 2026. State Rep. Daniel Troy, D-Willowick, recently noted that he plans to continue representing the people of House District 23 while moving f orward with programs and policies he has initiated and collaborated on during his tenure. District 23 encompasses eastern Cuyahoga County and portions of western Lake County. 2025 at a glance During the fall of 2024, Troy became concerned about the impending sunset of Ohio’s Public Works Bond Issue Program and encouraged another legislator with whom he’d served in the 1980s and ’90s, Republican Scott Oelslager from Stark County, to work with him to get State Issue 2 on the May 2025 ballot. “We successfully convinced the overwhelming majority of our colleagues in both the House and Senate to approve the resolution placing the constitutional amendment before the voters to ask them to extend this program for another 10 years,” Troy said. “It was gratifying to accomplish this effort and witness its near 70 percent approval by Ohio voters.” The State Capital Infrastructure Program will now continue for another decade with authorization from voters for the state to issue $2.5 billion in general obligation bonds to address thousands of local projects. The projects are decided by local elected officials through a collaborative process of merit-based scoring of the proposals. “It has been an outstanding example of local officials working with the Ohio Public Works Commission in partnership to get the needed work done,” Troy said. “During the campaign, I attended the council meetings of all of the cities and villages in my district to not only encourage support, but also to furnish each community a listing of and dollar amounts for all the projects that their jurisdiction had successfully acquired since the program’s inception in 1987.” As ranking member of the Ohio House Ways and Means Committee, a considerable amount of time was spent on the property tax issue, Troy noted. “On that subject, I continually argued for a long-overdue adjustment to Ohio’s Homestead Exemption program to help our senior and disabled citizens on fixed incomes with their property tax burden,” he added. “For the third term in a row, I have introduced bipartisan legislation (House Bill 103, current term) to substantially increase both the valuation reduction and the cap on income eligibility. “As I’ve stated on many occasions, we need to target property tax relief for those who need it the most….unfortunately, the majority in this General Assembly continue to advocate for tax policy relief that benefits those who need it the least.” Troy added that the committee, this past fall, thoroughly discussed measures impacting the state’s property tax structure. “I thought these bills in their introduced form would be devastating to many of our local school systems and other vital programs like Deepwood, our ADAMHS Board programs, and our (JFS) Children and Adult Protective Services programs,” he emphasized. “I was glad to be able to convince my colleagues to amend out the draconian components in these bills that would have created a crisis in the delivery of many of these vital services. “I was particularly concerned about the immediate detrimental impact on the Willoughby-Eastlake School District, the largest school district in my district,” Troy continued. “I stayed in constant communication with administration officials to determine what type of off-ramp they would need to adjust to these changes in state law to prevent teacher layoffs and other cuts in educational services. “These bills are certainly not perfect, but, as I said on the House floor, they were a heck of a lot more perfect than the versions initially introduced, as they will primarily prevent the type of spikes in future property tax bills that recently occurred due to large property value assessment increases.” Troy noted that the measures will place inflationary caps on certain property tax categories that were absent in the past. “One of the most significant ways to accomplish that is to have the state increase its funding for our schools and other vital programs, thereby reducing the reliance on property tax revenue to fund them,” he said. “We certainly should be doing more of that instead of continually reducing state income tax rates for our wealthiest Ohioans.” Troy also joined state Rep. Dave Thomas, R-Jefferson, to co-sponsor and introduce House Bill 493 to terminate the sale of delinquent property tax certificates to private collection agencies and add exorbitant interest and collection fees. He also noted the worked across the aisle on House Bill 178, a measure that would ensure that 70,000 qualifying seniors currently receiving only $23 a month in federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits would receive an additional $27 increase. “I think that we’re all aware of how much $23 a month can cover in this economy,” Troy said. “Maybe we could use some unclaimed funds for this purpose rather than for a football stadium.” Challenges, adjustments Naturally, Troy noted many hurdles revolved around tax reform and relief. “I understand that the other party is the majority, but I tried and will continue to try and work with them to try and get the compromises and common ground needed to make our property tax system easier to understand, less burdensome to those struggling to pay, and to make sure that we limit the preponderance of commercial property tax exemptions that continually shift more and more of the burden on to our residential homeowners.” On that subject, Troy is currently drafting legislation to restore the Ohio Tax Expenditure Council, the purpose of which would be to periodically review all of Ohio’s tax exemptions, the initial rationale that created them, and whether it still makes sense. “A principal fact of taxation is that the broader the base to which it applies, ultimately the lower the results for everyone else,” he said. Looking forward As a strong advocate for the health of Lake Erie, Troy said he will also continue to advocate for restoring cuts that were made to the H2Ohio program to improve the restoration or creation of wetlands, which do so much to improve the quality of regional lakes and waterways. “I am also working on and will soon introduce legislation to address the PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) issue, which is the increasing problem of microplastics showing up in our water supply,” he said. “This pollutant can cause significant risk to human and aquatic species health. “I sit as a member with Midwest state and Canadian province legislators on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Legislative Caucus, and this group is encouraging all of our Great Lakes state and provincial governments to become more aware, educated, and responsive to this growing problem,” Troy added. He also plans to advocate for the redevelopment of properties that are “environmentally challenged” and abandoned, rather than “eating up” green space with new development. And, at some point this year, we will consider a State Capital Improvements Bill,” Troy said. “I will work to get our area as fair a share as possible in this process, and I have been approached already with several area requests for funding, and will certainly work with area leaders to prioritize these requests to the greatest degree possible. “In the past, I have been able to get substantial capital appropriations for many projects, including, but not limited to, facilities at Lakeland Community College, the Willoughby Fine Arts Center, Mentor-on-the-Lake’s Overlook Park, the Richmond Heights Road Salt Facility, the Willoughby Osborne Park Lakefront, and many others.” Troy added that he enjoyed holding periodic town hall meetings, mainly at area libraries in Mentor, Willowick and Willoughby, during 2025. “I intend to conduct several more in 2026 throughout the district,” he said. “I love the opportunity to inform constituents on what’s happening in Columbus, and I appreciate the opportunity to hear their concerns and their opinions. “To me, that’s what (being a) ‘representative’ is all about.” ...read more read less