A new budget bill introduced Tuesday in the Ohio House of Representatives shrinks income tax cuts Gov. John Kasich recommended in his spending plan and strips out nearly all of the governor’s proposals for raising new tax revenue.
The budget also guarantees to school districts that they will not see any reduction the next two budget years in their state formula money, and pumps in additional funding to try to reduce losses from the phase-out of the state’s personal property tax.
The bill, like the Republican governor’s executive proposal, is a vast policy document that touches on many things beyond funding state government. Among other topics in the more than 3,000-page bill are provisions that would reduce local government money to communities that use traffic cameras for enforcement, clarify that the state auditor has no authority to audit public-records compliance by governments and eliminate a pay raise for judges.
House Republicans unveiled the bill Tuesday in a briefing, and the House Finance Committee convened immediately to accept it for discussion. The panel opens hearings on the bill Wednesday morning.
Kasich’s tax proposals were geared toward shifting Ohio away from income taxes, particularly those that hit small businesses, in favor of a system based more on consumption taxes, like the state sales tax.
The new bill eliminates most of the governor’s proposals, but that doesn’t mean legislators aren’t interested, said Speaker of the House Cliff Rosenberger.
“I believe in what the governor is trying to do and where he’s trying to go long term with our state … especially on the tax atmosphere,” Rosenberger said.
The budget proposes an Ohio 2020 Tax Policy Study Commission composed of House and Senate members, the state tax director and state budget director to further investigate tax changes.
“We are not at difference with the governor,” Rosenberger said. “We are in a position to say we want to work on this and craft this.”
Similar study panels will be looked at for issues involving the state’s formulas for supporting K-12 education and for aspects of the state’s Medicaid program, he said.
Total spending in the budget is up over each of the two years from what Kasich proposed, but in each case by less than 1 percent.
Click here to read more about some of the key things to know about the budget proposal.
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