If Cincinnati is ever to become a low-tax, homeowner-friendly city, it needs to keep chipping away at city property taxes.

City Council's vote today on the city property tax will determine whether this council goes out as a tax-raiser or a tax-reducer. Beginning in 1999, councils began rolling back the city's portion of the property tax from a maximum allowable 6.1 mills. They held revenues at a constant level for three years and did not take the hidden tax windfall that comes from rising residential property values. Last year, a council majority, spooked by a looming budget deficit, pegged the rate at 5.2 mills, allowing for a $2.5 million property tax increase over 1999 levels.

Republican Councilman Pat DeWine has pushed for the rollbacks all along to discourage council from spending on pet projects and keep chipping away at the city property tax. This year, he advocates reducing the rate to 5.0 mills returning the city's "Charter millage" to the 1999 rate. Democratic Councilman David Pepper has called for targeted property tax relief for senior citizens, but his selective plan sounds unconstitutional. Council should reduce the millage to 5.0 and return the property tax to 1999 tax-relief levels.

That 5.0 mill level would still cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $153. A compromise plan of taxing city residential property at 2003 levels of 5.2 percent would cost an additional $7. But that rate, set last year, included a revenue tax increase over the previous years. Supporters of the 5.2-mill rate ask: What's the big fuss over a $7 difference for an ordinary homeowner? DeWine argues, "If $7 is not that much, we ought to be able to cut it."

"I would love to do a much bigger rollback," he said. "There continues to be a lot of fat in the city budget."

State law requires council to set the city's property tax rate by the end of October. Council members should show the electorate they are serious about property tax relief.