Kasich: Let’s Help The Rich And Not Police, Fire, And School Children

[Rick Rowlands]

It is a good strategy to return unneeded tax money to the taxpayers.  The savings would of course go to those who actually pay the taxes, which is where it should go.  Since the poor are not paying much tax to begin with, they are already getting a good deal as they are getting more govt. services for their money.

Local government needs should be paid for by those people who live in those jurisdictions.  It is rather wasteful to tax everyone in the state, send all that money to Columbus then divvy it back up and send it back to the various local governments.  Lets just eliminate the middleman, cut the state income tax, cut the local govt. fund and then the locals can then pass levies to directly fund their own services.  It is truly returning the power to the people and the money saved on state income taxes can be used to pay the new higher local income taxes. 

[Irishbobcat]

John Kasich and his GOP friends in the Ohio Senate are pushing SB 210 which would use new savings and revenues from the expanded Medicaid program-some $404 million-to cut income tax rates by 4% on top of the 10% rate cuts passed in the recent budget bill.

This bill will further weaken Ohio's personal income tax that will benefit Ohio's wealthiest citizens while reducing revenues for local communities. Legislative Services will lose $577 million from their current budget cycle and $377 million a year in future budgets-monies that goes to local governments and libraries.

Kasich believes this personal income tax cut will woo new business interests in Ohio. What it actually does is benefit Ohio's wealthiest citizens who will see additional income tax cuts of $1,400 while the bottom 20% of Ohioans will receive $1 and the middle 20% of Ohioans will receive $28.

Instead of tax cuts to the wealthy, let's place this $404 million into veterans services, slow the opiate addiction crisis sweeping Ohio, and restore funding to the Local Government Fund and K-12 education.

Policy Matters Ohio reports the $404 million could help Ohio hire 1,000 more police officers, 675 firefighters, 239 case workers for senior citizens, 1,570 teachers, create 14,000 pre-school spots, provide need-based assistance for college students and strengthen the EITC for 855,000 Ohio families.

Ohio needs a governor who will help as many Ohioans as possible, not just the wealthy few.