Ohio House DOGE Caucus aims to cut waste and reform property tax system

COLUMBUS, Ohio — As Elon Musk's DOGE program continues to make cuts at the federal level, a similar type of program could be making its way to Ohio.

Based on the federal government's waste finding efforts, a group of Ohio House members created the Ohio House DOGE Caucus earlier this month.

It is led by a group of Republicans, including State Representative Ron Ferguson as the vice president, and reports to Auditor Keith Faber, and members are quick to note that there are considerable differences between the federal and state versions.

While the federal DOGE program is run through the executive branch, with President Donald Trump appointing Elon Musk, Ferguson said the Ohio version will take a more legislative approach.

"What we want to do at the Ohio level is actual legislation that gets vetted by the House and the Senate,” Ferguson said. “So, we're encouraging people to reach out to their state legislators to propose where government can be more efficient in the state of Ohio."

While taking a wholesale view of every state agency for waste, Ferguson said there is an area that's been catching some attention for potential waste.

"One of the things that we've seen are these commissions that are outdated,” Ferguson said. So, they might have been created for one thing a very long time ago, but they aren't necessarily needed anymore. So, we need to look at repealing those, getting rid of those, saving that tax money and putting it into good things."

Those good things Ferguson mentions could come in the form of a certain tax being rolled back.

"What I keep hearing from residents is, more than anything, we need to fix the property tax system,” Ferguson said. “We need to roll back taxes, and the best way we can do that is finding some other places to save money. So, if we can make government more efficient, if we can save that money, we can look at getting rid of the property tax and giving that money back in the pockets of hard-working Ohioans."

While the federal DOGE program did have a few growing pains and mishaps, Ferguson thinks the state version will operate much more smoothly, and benefit residents.

"Government should always be looking at ways to use your tax dollars the best they possibly can, and, if we don't have a good use for them, we need to be giving them back to you because it's the money you worked for,” Ferguson said. “At the end of the day, it's the money of hard-working Ohioans."

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