Tax and Spend

In order to bury the controversy about the IRS targeting tea party and patriot groups, leftists created a story that the IRS also targeted progressive groups so everything was even. That was a lie.

Ohio Senate passes a budget.

"Republican Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, was among those who praised the bill during floor debate, highlighting added spending on public schools and government health care programs."

Republicans love to increase spending. It also cuts income tax rates, which would be a wonderful thing, but I bet it increases sales taxes, meaning there's no real cut. Here's some details on the tax changes.

"The plan will provide income tax breaks to nearly all Ohioans but will raise some taxes and shift some tax burdens."
"We’re also including a tax plan that includes a 50% tax cut on Ohio’s small business owners who create most of the jobs in this state,” says Faber.
Faber says the 50% tax cut would be applied to the first $250,000 of income generated by small businesses. And he says that would cover 98 percent of Ohio’s small businesses.
To give these income tax breaks, the state would raise sales taxes across the board from 5.5 to 5.75 percent. And the state would tax things like electronic books that are not currently taxed and raise taxes on tobacco products that are not taxed at the level of cigarettes. The state would also eliminate an income tax break for gambling losses."

While I would have preferred all cuts and no hikes, it sounds like these changes will benefit Ohio's economy.

"“The key to this proposal is to make Ohio the most attractive place in the nation for job growth and job creation for middle class Ohioans,” says Oelslager."

If that was the goal, it failed miserably. You'd have to abolish the income tax, cut spending and pass right-to-work to do that. I want to see the actual income tax cut info. That seems like important news to report to me. They tell the sales tax rates, but not the income tax rates. Here's more relative tax info, but no actual rates.

"Under the latest proposal, Ohioans would receive a phased-in 10 percent personal income tax cut. An 8.5 percent cut from current rates would take effect in fiscal 2014, 9 percent the following year and 10 percent the next -- although this budget applies only to the first two years. "

So what are the rates?

"The Plain Dealer analyzed the combined impact of the proposed new sales and income tax rates and found that the higher the income, the larger the savings, both in terms of real dollars and the percent savings.
For example, a single person making $25,000 a year would save an estimated $26 in taxes, a 3.1 percent dip. A single person making $110,000 would save about $360, a reduction of more than 7 percent. The same trend held true for families."

That makes perfect sense. High earners produce more, so they should get more of a cut. They also buy more, so that reduces the difference.

""Once again, the GOP has sacrificed the well-being of Ohio's 11 million citizens to pursue a misguided and unfounded tax policy," said Turner, of Cleveland. "Their tax scheme will still disproportionately help the most affluent Ohioans at the expense of good schools and safe streets for the rest of us. The nominal gains Ohioans will see in their paychecks will not offset the inevitable increase in local taxes." "

She's probably right about local taxes. Local parasites are greedy and power hungry the same as state and national parasites.