Monday, July 27th, 2026

Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Pennant. To listen to this newsletter, click the “Listen Online” link in the top right corner of this email.

On this day in 2003, actor-comedian Bob Hope died at his home in Toluca Lake, Calif., at age 100. He played the Ohio State Fair 15 times.

Columbus State trustees are weighing a property tax levy that could make tuition free for new Franklin County high school graduates, and Summit County owners are opening reappraisal notices that will set their January 2027 tax bills — both stories are featured in the Top of the Fold.

Your electric bill and the November data center votes are the same story. Check out today's editorial to find out why.

CLEVELAND — The Ohio Immigrant Alliance report names 53 ICE and Border Patrol officers who have been charged with or sentenced for violent crimes, many of them sexual, including two former Cincinnati-area ICE employees.

Executive Director Lynn Tramonte is asking Congress to freeze both agencies' budgets and tighten hiring and accountability rules.

COLUMBUS — Columbus State Community College trustees reviewed three options Thursday for a proposed property tax levy but made no decision ahead of an Aug. 5 deadline to reach the November ballot.

The original proposal calls for a 10-year levy generating an estimated $95 million a year, which college leaders say would make tuition free for new Franklin County high school graduates and reduce costs for other county residents.

AKRON — Notices from Summit County's just-completed reappraisal of about 262,000 parcels are landing in mailboxes now, setting the values that will drive tax bills mailed in January 2027.

Owners who want to question a new figure can meet an appraiser virtually by appointment, by phone, or in person at a community meeting, offered first come, first served.

CHICAGO — Big Ten football media days open Tuesday at the Hilton Chicago, with all 18 programs sending their head coach and three players over three days.

Ohio State goes Wednesday, July 29, on Day 2. Quarterback Julian Sayin, wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and safety Jaylen McClain will join Coach Ryan Day. It marks Day's seventh appearance at the event as he enters his eighth season in Columbus.

Big Ten Network will carry live coverage all three days. We'll check in with our friends at Buckeye Insider and The Buckeye Weekly Podcast for updates. 

Kickoff is just 40 days away.

COLUMBUS — Two subjects fill our inbox more than all the rest put together: property taxes and utility rates. Lately the electric bill has been catching up to the tax bill.

Many of you often respond to three different stories. We think they are really one story.

The first is at the Statehouse. State Rep. Desiree Tims, D-Dayton, filed House Bill 970 this month. It would stop state regulators from approving any new rate increases for a year. Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, filed the Ratepayer Protection Act in Congress, a bill about how big projects hook up to the power grid.

The second is AEP Ohio's answer. The utility says your bill went up because power demands went up, and it points to the hundreds of data centers now pulling from the system. AEP says those costs pass straight through and it keeps none of the money. The company has been making that argument for a while, posting it on its own customer website in May 2025, repeating it to NBC 4 in Columbus in January and saying it again this month when the bills were filed.

It deserves a fair hearing, but it is not the whole story. AEP posted record profits last August. State law also bars the company from making its own power, which changes the math before any data center opens. Consumer advocates have pointed out that parts of AEP's rate request would cover executive pay and fitness center costs. Profits are not a sin — they keep people working and shareholders rewarded. Still, a company explaining its own bill has a stake in the answer.

The third story is on the ballot. Sunbury and Grove City have already qualified their questions for November, and Pataskala is close to finalizing its own.

Those questions are not the same, either. Sunbury and Pataskala are aiming at specific projects, using a 25-megawatt cap. Grove City reaches further. Businesses already there would be grandfathered in, but any new project — or an expansion of an existing one — over 50 acres, 20 megawatts or 500,000 gallons of water a day would go to a public vote, which could include a warehouse or a food plant.

Read all three before you vote.

Questions, comments, and letters to the editor are welcome at [email protected].

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