Republican leaders of the Ohio House want to scrap some tax hikes proposed by Gov. John Kasich. But as expect, they want to keep his proposed tax cut, even though it won’t be as big as he wanted. The House budget includes a 6.3% income tax cut, which totals $1.2 billion – but it’s a big drop from Kasich’s 23% tax cut. But they also erased nearly all of Kasich’s proposed tax increases that would have paid for that tax cut – including the tax hikes on tobacco products and oil and gas drillers, and the increases in the sales tax and the commercial activity tax. And this was also expected: the House GOP made some changes to the governor’s proposed school funding formula. House leaders adding $850 million and said no district would get less money than it got in the last year of the current budget.
House Democrats weren’t happy with the budget. Minority Leader Fred Strahorn of Dayton at first praised House Republicans for a non-combative process so far, but said they plan to fight against the proposals they think are problematic. Democrats say lawmakers have cut income taxes for ten years and it hasn’t had a substantial positive effect on Ohio’s economy.
A unique group of lobbyists came to the Statehouse this week. Six of the nine Ohio death row inmates who’ve been exonerated after being freed for crimes they had nothing to do with met with reporters, and then delivered to lawmakers a letter asking them to consider the recommendations in the Ohio Supreme Court task force report on the death penalty – and a letter highlighting thirteen recommendations that they feel would prevent wrongful convictions and even executions. But no lobbyist or activist can explain the serious concerns about capital punishment as compellingly as those men who actually stared down dates with death. I’m pleased to welcome two of them - Kwame Ajamu, who sentenced to death 39 years ago, and Joe D'Ambrosio, who spent 23 years on death row before the charges against him were dismissed.