Heading into state budget season this year, Ohio Gov. John Kasich put forth a plan that he said would cut income taxes for everyone in the state – including businesses – while raising sales tax revenues and the state’s severance tax on fracked oil and gas. At the end of the process, and after several months of back and forth between Republicans in the House and Senate, Kasich got tax cuts but some observers are questioning GOP claims that everyone is a winner after this process.
An across the board cut of 10 percent will come off of Ohioans’ personal income tax bills and small businesses will receive a new state income tax exemption of 5o percent on the first $250,000 of business income. The personal income tax cut will be phased in over three years. Tax cuts in the Kasich budget total around $2.7 billion. They are being paid for by raising the state sales tax one quarter of a percent to 5.75 percent, new taxes on many online purchases, cutting the 12.5 percent state pickup on the cost of new local property tax levies and means testing the state’s homestead exemption for older Ohioans.
Two agricultural wins are increased funding for the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster and the Ohio State University Extension program.
