Rebuild Clermont County Without Sticking Residents With the Bill

Revitalize Eastgate, demand results on State Route 32, build housing people can afford, and reform property taxes without hollowing out local services.

Clermont County is growing, but growth by itself is not success. A ribbon cutting does not matter if traffic gets worse, housing moves farther out of reach, taxpayers inherit a developer's costs, or local communities lose control over what gets built.

My standard is simple: coordinate the pieces, publish the tradeoffs, protect local residents, and measure whether public investments delivered what taxpayers were promised.

Rebuild Eastgate as a center of community life

The Eastgate Mall district is one of Clermont County's largest long-term economic opportunities. It has regional highway access, existing utilities, surrounding neighborhoods, and a strong customer base. Union Township's Envision Eastgate process reflects what residents said they want: a mixed-use district with housing, businesses, restaurants, offices, entertainment, public space, and walkable connections.

But a public vision is not the same as an active development project. Union Township is clear that no immediate proposal is moving forward. Fragmented ownership, private agreements, litigation, and infrastructure constraints have slowed progress.

The answer is not for Columbus to dictate a land-use plan or hand one developer a blank check. It is sustained coordination and a state government willing to help local leaders remove solvable barriers.

I will work to:

Convene property owners, Union Township, Clermont County, ODOT, utilities, and economic-development partners around a shared implementation path.
Help local leaders compete for infrastructure, brownfield, transportation, and redevelopment funding.
Coordinate state permits and agency reviews so a viable project does not die between offices.
Tie every public incentive to measurable public benefits, enforceable milestones, and clawbacks when promises are not kept.
Preserve local authority over zoning, design, land use, and community fit.

The state representative's job is not to choose the restaurants or draw the site plan. It is to make sure the state does its part, the public can see the deal, and local residents remain in the driver's seat.

Put State Route 32 through an accountability test

State Route 32 is the economic spine of Clermont County. Its bottlenecks affect safety, commuting time, business investment, and Eastgate's future.

Every major state-backed transportation project should answer four public questions:

What specific problem are we solving?
What will it cost, and what is the realistic completion date?
What measurable improvement in safety, congestion, or access should residents expect?
After construction, did the project deliver the result taxpayers were promised?

I will push for a public project page with scope, funding, milestones, schedule changes, and expected outcomes for every major Route 32 investment. After completion, ODOT should publish an after-action report comparing actual safety and traffic results with the original promise.

Announcing construction is not the same as delivering a result.

Build enough homes for the people who live and work here

Clermont County's housing study found that 19,000 households spend more than 30 percent of their income on a combination of mortgage or rent, taxes, insurance, and utilities. The study also found critically low rental vacancy, limited infrastructure capacity in non-urban areas, and a mismatch between shrinking household size and the larger homes being built.

That affects employers, young families, seniors, first-time buyers, and the long-term stability of our communities.

I support more housing choices while respecting community character and local decision-making:

Reuse aging commercial areas for housing and mixed-use development where local plans support it.
Make room for starter homes, townhomes, apartments, senior housing, and accessory dwellings where communities decide they fit.
Coordinate roads, schools, utilities, drainage, and public safety with new growth instead of treating infrastructure as an afterthought.
Give applicants clear rules, complete checklists, and predictable decisions.
Keep zoning and land-use decisions primarily local rather than imposing one statewide development map.

Local control is important. It should protect community judgment, not excuse an arbitrary process in which nobody can learn the rules or receive an answer.

One Project, One Clock

Predictable government is an economic advantage for homeowners, builders, and small businesses alike.

For significant projects involving multiple state or local reviews, I support a One Project, One Clock model:

Assign one responsible contact to coordinate the agencies involved.
Run independent reviews concurrently whenever possible.
Publish a complete application checklist, a clear permitting clock, and current project status.
Require written reasons tied to law or code for every denial or request for additional work.
Give an applicant a reasonable opportunity to correct harmless or technical violations.
Create an escalation process when an agency misses its deadline.

Ohio should offer shared permitting technology, model timelines, and incentives for local governments that adopt clear clocks and sensible cure periods. Safety, environmental review, property rights, and local zoning remain intact. The reform is about coordination and answers, not automatic approval.

Small and locally owned businesses deserve the same chance to compete as large corporations seeking headline-grabbing incentive packages. Economic development should be measured by durable jobs, local payroll, a stronger tax base, and infrastructure the community can sustain, not the size of a press release.

Recognize the property-tax reforms already enacted

Homeowners are right to be angry when tax bills rise faster than their incomes, especially seniors and families on fixed incomes. But an honest platform must acknowledge what Ohio has already changed.

In December 2025, Ohio enacted a five-bill property-tax package:

House Bill 186 created an inflation cap credit for certain school-district tax growth and expanded the owner-occupancy credit.
House Bill 335 capped growth in inside-millage collections during reappraisals and updates.
House Bill 129 changed which levies count toward the 20-mill floor.
House Bill 309 expanded county budget commissions' ability to reduce unnecessary collections.
House Bill 124 gave county auditors more oversight of sales data used in valuations.

Those are real reforms, and they deserve time to work. Some relief began in 2026, while other provisions phase in during 2027. The next representative should measure their actual effect on Clermont County bills, not claim victory based on a statewide estimate or dismiss the package before the evidence arrives.

Finish property-tax reform without wrecking local services

The new laws do not settle every problem. Ohio still needs a system that better accounts for a homeowner's ability to pay, gives taxpayers understandable bills, and protects schools, police, fire departments, libraries, and local governments from fiscal whiplash.

I will support:

A public Clermont County impact report showing how each enacted reform changes actual bills, school revenue, and local-service funding.
A state-funded property-tax circuit breaker for owner-occupants whose property-tax burden rises beyond a defined share of household income, with special attention to seniors and fixed-income homeowners. Relief should phase out at higher incomes, remain simple to claim, and reimburse local taxing authorities so schools, police, fire departments, libraries, and other essential services are not forced to absorb the cost.
Clear notice explaining which taxing authority, levy, valuation change, or state formula caused each material increase.
Publication of the local effect of any proposed replacement tax before the General Assembly votes.
A serious study of land-value taxation, including any constitutional or statutory changes Ohio would need before land and improvements could be treated differently. A land-value approach may reduce the tax penalty on construction and productive investment, but the legal path and local fiscal effects should be clear before Ohio adopts it.

I will not support abolishing property taxes first and deciding later how to fund essential local services. Nor will I support shifting the same burden blindly onto sales, income, or business taxes without showing who pays and what new distortions result.

The goal is not to defend the old system. It is to replace what is failing without opening a larger hole underneath our schools and communities.

Public money requires a public return

Every major subsidy, tax abatement, or state-backed development agreement should disclose:

The public benefit being purchased.
The full value and duration of the incentive.
The jobs, payroll, housing, infrastructure, or tax revenue promised.
Who pays for roads, utilities, public safety, and ongoing maintenance.
The milestones that trigger payment.
The clawback that applies when promises are missed.

Growth should make Clermont County stronger. Residents should not be handed the bill after the press conference is over.