For conservatives this is a win. It’s a revenue neutral tax that is
offset by a reduction in personal income tax for Ohioans. Even with this plan in place Ohio will still
have a lower rate than Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota and Texas.
Also, Americans for Tax Reform has signed
off. They’ve acknowledged that a
plan like the one being discussed is still consistent with Governor Kasich’s
pledge to not raise taxes because it’s revenue neutral.
Not surprisingly, Democrats are already
discounting the amount as inconsequential to the average Ohioan and want to
increase the taxes on severance.
They forget that $1 billion is going back into the pockets of Ohioans
who will then spend it, for the most part, in Ohio. I’m pretty sure that people spending an extra $1 billion in
Ohio’s economy could probably be classified as a good thing.
It’s also not
surprising that Democrats are asking for a much higher tax. Dale Butland from Innovation Ohio wants
to see higher taxes because; "It's completely implausible that these companies are going to leave billions of dollars in profits on the table if they are asked to pay the same tax rates that they already pay in Texas."
The glaring problem
with Butland’s statement is that there isn’t an income tax in Texas that
employees have to pay. Comparing
the two, once you factor in all the facts, is pretty ridiculous.
At the end of the
day you should be the one deciding where and how your money is spent, not the state. A $1 billion tax cut for Ohio is
exactly what we need to keep our economy moving in the right direction.
I can spend it better than they can. Thanks for the cut, gov!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletewow dale! Thanks for writing a book. You progressives love to spend other peoples money on things like schools and local governments. Let me decode that... You want to give that money to unions and union bosses. Ohioans pay very high taxes between income, sales and property taxes. I will happily take any tax cut I can get and those union members can find another way to scam the system.
Deletethanks for the link to your blog. If your comments are that long, I would love to see how long your articles are!
Dear Mr. Butland,
DeleteFree speech is encouraged here at 3BP. However, we are not going to host entire posts for Innovation Ohio or any other blog. Slap up a link if you want, but don't think we are going to give our space to publishing your blog for you.
Sheesh.
Yes, you certainly "encourage free speech." As long as it comports with your ideological agenda and doesn't contradict your opinions with facts. My bad. I had you confused with someone having intellectual integrity. Won't happen again.
ReplyDeletedb
Buttland, apparently you haven't ever read this blog before or you would make such a fool of yourself with your ignorance. We have the loosest commenting requirements of any blog you can find. You can comment anonymously without even entering an email address or name.
DeleteWe have literally thousands of comments from a Plunderbund writer who argued nearly every post we made for years. PB is obviously completely opposite from our ideology here. Ask the guys over there how many of their comments were removed. They will tell you ZERO.
As obnoxious as he always was, he never resorted to using our blog to republish his posts from Plunderbund. At most he would make what he considered a point, and maybe paste a link. And all of those comments stand on this blog to this day.
You are the media contact for Innovation Ohio, and copied and pasted an entire press release into our comments. Not too many blogs are going to put up with that. Totally uncool and inappropriate. We aren't here to give your organization free publicity.
Ridiculous.
The blogpost I wrote and that you removed from your site was NOT an Innovation Ohio press release. It was a longish reply I wrote myself in response to Mr. Adams' snarky post on your site about a comment I made in the Plain Dealer.
DeleteNow you can talk all you wish about how "loose" your commenting requirements are and what a champion of "free speech" you are. But the truth is that legitimate publications ALWAYS allow someone who's been attacked by name to respond. You didn't.
The question is ....why? I took the time to respond to Mr. Adams at length ---and to fully lay out the policy rationale behind the comment he attacked.
Why not let your readers read BOTH comments ---and then decide for themselves who has the better argument?
No, apparently you'd rather only ONE side be heard ---YOUR side. And then you seek to justify the censorship by falsely accusing me of "copying and posting an entire press release" from my organization on your site. Oh, yeah, and then there's your intentional and juvenile misspelling of my name. I'm sure that's got third-graders all over Ohio slapping their thighs.
So forgive me for intruding into your Echo Chamber. I won't do it again. Because when it comes to policy discussions, I would prefer talking talk to grown-ups.
db
Butland, if that is true, and it wasn't a pasted press release from IO, than it is my bad and I jumped the gun.
DeleteIt wasn't a press release from IO. So may I assume you'll repost it?
DeleteHere is Mr. Butlands original comment. I made an incorrect assumption about his rather lengthy screed and should not have removed it.
DeleteDale Butland of Innovation Ohio responds:
While I appreciate what is doubtlessly Mr. Adams'deep knowledge of all things Ohio, let me gently suggest that my comments about Gov. Kasich's reported fracking policy "plan" may not be quite so "ridiculous" as Mr. Adams suggests.
First, as I'm sure Mr. Adams knows, Ohio presently has the second lowest oil and gas severance tax in the nation ---less than 1% on natural gas, about 20 cents per barrel on oil, and we levy no tax at all on so-called "natural gas liquids" like butane and propane (and which the oil companies seem to be coveting most of all since the price for these liquids is high and there is so much of it in Ohio's Utica shale.)
By contrast, Texas taxes natural gas extraction at 7.5% and oil and natural gas liquids at 4.6% Texas' tax rate, however, is far from the highest in America. That distinction belongs to Alaska, which imposes a tax of 25%. If I'm not mistaken, neither Texas nor Alaska is generally regarded as hostile to the interests of the oil and gas industry. Correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Adams.
Second, the tax we propose is hardly onerous since, as I am sure Mr. Adams also knows, Ohio currently has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the nation...indeed, we are one of only two states that doesn't tax corporate profits at all.
Third, the fact that Ohio has a personal income tax and Texas doesn't is immaterial to the issue at hand, since the severance tax would be a corporate tax, not a tax on individuals.
Fourth and finally is the question of what is the best use for whatever revenue Ohio ends up deriving from fracking. Gov. Kasich apparently thinks the revenue should be used to provide a tax cut to individual Ohio taxpayers.
But that would be a small cut indeed. According to the figures his own Administration provided to the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, Gov. Kasich's severance tax is expected to raise between $666 million at $1 billion --- OVER 5 YEARS. If you crunch the numbers, you will see that that would provide a tax cut of roughly 30 bucks per year ---or 62 cents a day --for the average Ohio taxpayer.
Moreover, because Mr. Kasich's cuts to schools and local governments would remain, the need for LOCAL tax increases would remain as well. Which means that Gov. Kasich is perpetrating little more than a shell game in which taxes are cut at the state level (and by very little) ---but then would have to be raised (and by far more than the amount of the state tax cut) at the local level in order to fund schools and local government services like police and fire protection.
We believe it would be better to use new fracking revenue to offset the draconian budget cuts Mr. Kasich handed to schools and local governments in his biennial budget, thereby obviating or greatly reducing the need for local tax increases.
The think tank with which I am affiliated ---Innovation Ohio ---released a major report on the entire fracking issue a few weeks ago. In it, we specifically state our belief that the oil companies are entitled to a fair and reasonable profit for the work they will do and the investments they will make. But we also believe that average Ohioans also deserve a fair share and a fair shake ---especially since, according the industry itself, oil companies are poised to earn hundreds of billions of dollars from the extraction of this state's natural resources.
Readers of this blog may access our report at www.innovationohio.org. I assure you it is not "ridiculous."