Jan

23

Ohio’s Educational Solution: Stealth Tax Amendment

January 23, 2007 |

We talked about it here. Now the Right Angle Blog is exposing more. It seems that Strickland may end up backing the new ballot initiative for “higher quality” expensive education.

Now, Republican legislators have been taunting Strickland to show his plan. They know school funding is complex with no easy solutions, and any genuine attempt to move from a formula dependent on local property taxes to a state system will mean an increase in taxes.

And they would love to have Strickland talking about tax increases.

Now that would be hand exponential.

Instead, Strickland issued a caveat: if his plan to bring stakeholders together fails, then the governor will back a ballot initiative, although he never pledged support for the coalition’s amendment.

I can’t imagine him pulling together anyone on this so that means the initiative will be the only thing on the table. In reality it will force Strickland to talk about tax hikes even though he might not use those words.

Michele Prater, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Education Association teachers’ union, said work on the proposal has been under way for well over a year - and, if nothing else, it will put the issue back in the forefront of debate at the Republican-controlled Statehouse.

David Hansen, a spokesman for the fiscally conservative Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, said the issue also may be intended to pressure lawmakers and Strickland into a tax increase for schools.

“I suppose that’s the temptation out there,” he said. “They (the ballot campaign) have been pretty clear on their side that they’re doing this to give the opportunity to the Legislature to act and satisfy whatever demands they have.”

If Strickland were to change his political position on tax increases, he would be in good company: Most of the state’s governors for the past 50 years have signed off on tax increases that they initially opposed.

We have said (as others have) that Taxin Ted never really meant not to expand government and its reach into Ohio pockets. Gov. Strickland may feign wanting to keep taxes low but that seems more like talk for the campaign than reality. In the end the Education Amendment, if passes, will be an expensive lesson for all of Ohio. These initiatives will force tax payers to dole out more and means less for investment and discretionary spending. Something that will hurt the economy in Ohio.


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