Federal and state individual income tax returns are due Tuesday, but as Ohioans close the books on a year’s worth of earnings, tax researchers and advocates are looking forward.
Policy Matters Ohio, a left-leaning research firm, is again advocating on Tax Day for a statewide child tax credit—just days after one was nixed in House Bill 96, the two-year state budget.
Gov. Mike DeWine’s version of the biennial budget had a $1,000 per year and per child tax credit provided to parents through a child’s sixth birthday. It would be refundable, and at least some portion would be available to parents with a joint income of $94,000 or less, according to budget documents.
“I’ve not heard one member of the legislature, (who) I’ve talked to at least, who doesn’t think that this is a very, very good idea,” DeWine said earlier this month. “You have conservative thinkers, you have liberal thinkers who all come together and say, ‘This is good. This is good for society. This is something that we that we need.’”
Creation of the child tax credit would have been funded by boosting taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products. DeWine has proposed raising the per cigarette pack rate from $1.60 to $3.10, a $1.50 increase, and raising the wholesale tax on other products from 17% to 42%, according to budget documents.
House GOP lawmakers, however, rejected those requests in their version of HB 96, saying they didn’t want to raise any taxes. HB 96 is now in the Senate’s hands.
Bailey Williams, a researcher with left-leaning Policy Matters Ohio, called it unfortunate. Williams said the policy has proven a boon for parents at the federal level and in other states.
“These credits are tax cuts, and it’s who we’re prioritizing who we get these tax cuts to, and whether they’re budget-busting handouts to the wealthy or targeted tax relief,” Williams said Tuesday.
Sixteen other states have enacted child tax credits, some of which came post-pandemic, he said.
