Examiner.com:
Forced to make a decision he has tried to avoid since coming to office in 2006, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland announced Wednesday that he wants to end the final year of a five-year, phased-in reduction in personal income taxes to replace money already budgeted for education that he and other lawmakers had expected to come from placing thousands of video slot machines at each of the state's seven horseracing tracks, a plan now stalled when the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled last week that it is subject to referendum.
Final year of income tax reduction plan frozen
Under the proposal Strickland announced today, which would require legislative approval, the income tax would increase by 4.2 percent starting Jan. 1, the same amount of the tax cut for this year that was part of a five-year, 21 percent cut approved by a Republican-controlled General Assembly in 2005.....
....Commenting on the governor's decision, Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee said he agreed with the decision. "I applaud Governor Strickland's proposal to balance the state budget by postponing a planned income tax reduction." With this move, he said, "the governor is taking decisive, responsible action to meet a significant projected budget shortfall. I am hopeful that members of the General Assembly will give prompt and serious consideration to this approach." Gee and The Ohio State University would likely have had to increase tuition had funding for education been impacted severely.....
Strickland had a courageous move to make. With the state income tax staying at the same rate, people will not be forced to pay higher taxes. If the measure would pass, that would help make up the state's expected deficit. It just makes sense.
