Taxation Archives | Page 3 of 9

Nov 10 2014

Bipartisan Group of Mayors Call for Ohio’s Attacks on Cities to Stop

We recently attended an eye-opening meeting of over a dozen mayors — Republicans and Democrats — from Hamilton County and the editors of the Cincinnati Enquirer to discuss the continued impact of deep cuts to Ohio’s cities and their impact on local services. As the resulting editorial explains, communities hit by drastic cuts in the past two state budgets and are facing yet another attack in the form of House Bill 5:

But the totality of the pressures on local governments are beginning to take a toll, and state officials should restore at least part of the cuts they’ve made. The cuts have been indiscriminate, hurting the places that need to share services as well as those that are already doing a good job. Strengthening the state at the expense of local services is no victory at all. – Enquirer editorial 11/8/14

Many communities have already had to raise taxes or cut services to cope with these threats. IO will continue to work with local mayors to research the statewide impact of these policies including the potential damaging effects of HB5.

Sep 12 2013

IO Op-Ed: Tired of tax reform that doesn’t help?

The following op-ed ran in yesterday’s edition of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram: — On Thursday, the Ohio House Tax Reform Study Committee will hold a public hearing in North Ridgeville. It seems the honorables want to hear any ideas you or your neighbors might have for future “tax reform.” To quote Brad Pitt in the movie “Inglourious Basterds,” I hope you’ll oblige them. But first, let’s review their most recent “reforms.” Ohio’s new biennial budget contains five of them. The first is a 10 percent across-the-board income tax cut. The second is a 4.5 percent increase in the state sales tax. Third, there’s a 50 percent tax cut for business. The fourth reduces the number of seniors eligible to claim the “homestead exemption” on their property taxes. And the fifth will hike the cost of future local levies by 12.5 percent. Perhaps you’ve detected a pattern. Taken together, these five “reforms” shift Ohio’s tax burden away from the rich and put it squarely on the rest. [Read more…]

Jul 25 2013

Effects of Kasich property tax increase already being felt

As we wrote about recently, Republican lawmakers slipped in a provision in the waning hours of the budget process that will soon cause property taxes to increase for all Ohioans. The provision, the elimination of the property tax rollback, means that property owners will be forced to pay an additional 12.5 percent on all new and replacement levies. Since the 1970’s that 12.5 percent was picked up by the state, but with the signing of the budget the state will no longer cover that cost. Going forward this means that tax bills will rise for all property owners, continuing the transfer of paying for government services from the state level to the local level. This change is already starting to affect local communities. On Tuesday, there was an excellent article on the increased tax burden property owners face in Upper Arlington, a suburb outside of Columbus. Upper Arlington Schools planned on placing a new levy on the November ballot for $6.3 million a year but school officials noted that the cost to homeowners increased significantly since the budget was signed into law. [Read more…]

Jul 24 2013

Newark Advocate takes GOP to task for local budget cuts

The editorial page at the Newark Advocate is hardly a hotbed of progressive thought. But this week the page took the state GOP to task for its cynical policies of cutting taxes at the state level only to make steep cuts at the local level. As a result, local services like police and fire protection will suffer or local taxes will go up. All for a state income tax cut estimated to be worth $9 a year for the average Ohioan.

These policies are touted as friendly to job-creators, but what is clear is that they help the wealthy, and hardly anyone else. Don’t believe us? Here’s what the folks at the Advocate had to say:

Our opinion: GOP budget likely means higher local taxes Ohio’s Republican crusade to make our state more business friendly has resulted in another round of cuts to personal and business taxes and a small regressive sales tax increase. If their plan works, Ohio’s economy will create more jobs with employees paying their share of local and state taxes. They just forget to tell you those local taxes likely will be higher, perhaps much higher. … [Read more…]

Jul 16 2013

Kasich endorses school levy his budget made more expensive

We noticed that John Kasich has come out in support of the new Columbus school levy. What we find amazing is that the Dispatch failed to mention that because of Kasich and the budget he just signed into law, that levy will now cost the owner of a $100,000 home another $315 per year from the 9.01 mill levy. Prior to Kasich’s budget and the elimination of the state property tax rollback, the cost of the levy would have been $275.

[Read more…]

Jul 03 2013

Policy makers continue to make tax code in Ohio more regressive

For over a decade, Republican lawmakers have been obsessed with continually lowering the state income tax rate. And with the signing of the state’s new two-year operating budget, Governor Kasich cemented his desire to continue this policy. The new state budget reduces income tax rates by 10 percent over the next three years. The graphic below charts the top tax rate in Ohio since 2000. As you can see, starting in 2015, the highest state income tax rate will be 5.333 percent compared to a high of 7.5 percent in 2001-2003.

[Read more…]

Jun 28 2013

Republican Budget Rhetoric vs Reality

With Governor Kasich and GOP leaders set to spend the weekend celebrating the passage of Ohio’s two-year budget, we offer some facts to respond to the claims you will no doubt hear. While their rhetoric sounds nice, the reality is another budget that rewards the rich at the expense of the rest. Education Rhetoric: This budget makes an ”historic investment” in public education and no school district gets cut. Reality: After Kasich’s first budget cut $1.8 billion from public education this budget’s partial restoration of funds still leaves schools deep in the hole.

1 in 4 school districts get less funding than in FY12-13
3 in 4 school districts get less funding than in FY10-11 [source: Innovation Ohio]

While disinvesting in traditional public schools, funding for charter schools (many of which are run by two of the Republicans’ biggest campaign contributors) is up by 17%, and vouchers have been expanded to cover 80% of Ohio’s kids, even those from affluent families or from excellent rated school districts [source: Innovation Ohio]. Women Rhetoric: This is the most “progress-centered” budget in the history of the state of Ohio and keeps us “moving forward.” Reality: The bill is a huge step back for women. With six new provisions to limit women’s access to healthcare and abortion it is the worst budget for women in recent history.

Local Communities

Rhetoric: There is “a lot of continued support to local governments” in this budget.

Reality: Local communities will get $1.4 billion less from this budget than they did in FY10-11, causing increased local taxes and cuts in services [source: Policy Matters Ohio].

Taxes

Rhetoric: The “across the board” tax cut benefits all Ohioans.

Reality: The tax provisions in the budget reward Ohio’s most affluent with average annual tax cuts of more than $6,000 a year, while low-income Ohioans will pay slightly more. [source: Policy Matters Ohio]

Top 1% (earning $335,000 and up) get $6,083
Middle (earning $33,000-$51,000) get $9
Lowest 20% (earning under $18,000) will pay $12 more

The budget increases future property tax levies by 12.5% Rhetoric: The business tax cuts will create jobs in the “immediate future” and will help small business “big time.” Reality: 80% of Ohio small businesses will get only $372 per year and no business will get enough to hire even one minimum wage worker [source: Cleveland Plain Dealer].

Jun 25 2013

Legislators Set to Benefit from Business Tax Cut

Today, a House-Senate conference committee is set to finalize the outlines of a broad package of tax reforms that will be incorporated into the state’s two-year budget. A new analysis by Innovation Ohio shows that nearly half the sitting members of the Ohio General Assembly could directly benefit from a new tax break aimed at business owners. Forty-seven legislators report an ownership stake in a pass-through entity, while another 10 have an indirect relationship through a spouse’s ownership or as an employee. Another 12 members list ownership in corporations that may elect to be taxed as individuals. [Read more…]

Jun 20 2013

Homeowners, small businesses and low-income Ohioans to fund new GOP tax plan

According to the Columbus Dispatch, GOP leaders will today unveil a new tax plan that preserves the $1.4 billion cut in taxes for business owners and investors, but adds an income tax cut, paid for by increasing sales taxes, taxing more small businesses and eliminating tax relief for homeowners. In order to pay for an 8% across-the-board reduction in Ohio’s income tax – a cut that will disproportionately help the wealthy – the plan to be rolled out this afternoon would:

raise the sales tax by 0.25%
expand the pool of businesses subject to the state’s commercial activity tax (by lowering from $1 million to $500,000 the amount of revenue a business can have before they pay the tax)
eliminate the state’s 12.5% contribution to property taxes for future levies

Since the 1970s, the state of Ohio, in an effort to lower property tax bills, has reimbursed counties and schools in order to provide a 10% break on property taxes, and another 2.5% benefit for owner-occupied properties. State support for these two programs amounted to over $1.3 billion in 2012 alone. Here’s a chart showing how much each county receives from the tax rollback. According to the Dispatch, the state would stop providing this support for future levies, which may be defined to include renewals of current levies. It could also mean local taxpayers will pick up the full tab for any new levies vs. the 87.5% they are currently paying. That means less state support for schools, despite claims made just last week by Senate leaders that they were investing in schools. And schools aren’t alone. Under the plan, the state will lessen its support for libraries, health districts, mental health, senior services and an array of other services supported by property taxes. And taxpayers will be left to make up the difference, or services will be reduced. It’s another massive tax shift to local taxpayers so state officials can claim to cut taxes. Raising the sales tax hits low-income Ohioans hardest. The poor pay the highest share of their incomes in sales taxes – 7% of the incomes of the lowest fifth of Ohio income-earners, compared to just 1% paid by the wealthiest 1%. A hearing on the new plan will be held tomorrow, just hours after most Ohioans will read about it in their newspaper, with a final version of the budget expected early next week.