· September 12, 2012

Report: Romney Plan Would Clobber Ohioans

For Immediate Release: September 12, 2012 Contact: Dale Butland, 614-783-5833

IO-CAP study says Ohio would lose $106 Billion and middle class would pay higher taxes

Columbus–A new collaborative analysis by Innovation Ohio and the Center for American Progress Action Fund has found that Ohio and its middle income taxpayers would be hit hard under the economic plan put forward by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. IO and CAP Action are progressive think tanks. IO is headquartered in Columbus, while CAP Action is based in Washington, D.C. The study, “The Real Cost of the Romney-Ryan Plan to Ohioans”, is the second project undertaken jointly by the two organizations. The full report is available at innovationohio.org. Among the study’s main findings are:

• Under the Romney tax plan, Ohio’s 5,800 millionaires would receive an additional tax cut of at least $87,000, while middle class Ohio families would pay $1,900 more in health care taxes and $1,066 more in taxes on their home mortgages.
• Under the Romney budget plan, Ohio would lose over $106 billion in federal funding from 2013-2022, or an average of more than $10 billion per year. Programs that would be subjected to huge cuts include health care, law enforcement, highway repair, job-training and, especially, education —which would suffer cuts of nearly $100 million in 2013 and 2014 alone. Ohio college students would lose 5,390 work-study positions, and Ohio’s 363,000 Pell Grant recipients would have their awards cut by $830 per year.
• Under the Romney energy plan, investment in green energy technologies like wind and solar would be slashed, jeopardizing 125,000 Ohio clean energy jobs, including the 6,000 jobs that currently exist in wind energy.
• Under the Romney health care plan, 70,000 Ohio seniors would pay at least $660 more per year for their prescription drugs due to a re-opening of the Medicare “donut hole”, while the 97,000 young Ohio adults now covered under their parents’ health care policies would lose insurance. Insurance companies could go back to charging women more than men for the same policies, and nearly 2 million Ohio women would lose the no-cost preventive care and disease screenings they currently have.
• Under the Romney plan to “voucherize” Medicare by 2023, health care costs for current Medicare recipients aged 65 and over would increase by $11,000 per year. Costs would be even greater for future retirees.

Said Innovation Ohio President Janetta King: “Until now, no one has focused on what the Romney agenda would mean for Ohio and Ohioans. But Innovation Ohio and CAP Action think specific numbers and dollar amounts are important — and we believe the people of Ohio deserve to know what’s in store if the Romney-Ryan proposals are enacted. In our view, the true cost of ‘Romneyconomics’ is more than Ohio can afford.” CAP Action President Tom Perriello added: “Facts should matter in elections, and the fact is that Ohio families will see a tax increase, higher education costs and pay more for health care under a Romney-Ryan administration. Our just-the-facts Ohio tour isn’t about the personalities on the ticket — it’s about the practical impacts at the kitchen table of what these candidates are proposing.”

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