|
Wednesday, 16 December 2009 |
By MIKE BURKHOLDER
Staff Writer
A state senator says Ohio’s budget woes should be placed solely on the shoulders of Gov. Ted Strickland.
State Sen. Keith Faber lambasted Strickland regarding the governor’s move to suspend, for two years, the last installment of a 21-percent income tax cut.
Faber called the move a tax hike.
“He is essentially retroactively raising taxes,” Faber said in a telephone interview. “As of Jan. 1, everyone’s income tax rates and withholdings have been based on that and now the governor wants to go back to January and take that 4.6 percent.”
Senators in Columbus continue to haggle about the budget — and an $850 million hole in the spending measure.
Faber criticized Strickland for banking on lottery and gambling revenues that the state senator said were over-inflated estimates.
Strickland said Tuesday he’ll order state senators back to Columbus if they break this week without a solution to an $850 million gap in the budget for funding schools.
The persistent budget gap is clouding the holiday plans of state lawmakers.
“I hope there will be that kind of commitment on the part of both chambers and both parties to make sure that we attend to the needs of the state of Ohio before any of us attend to our own personal needs,” said Strickland, who supports holding a legislative session on Christmas Day if it proves necessary.
Senate President Bill Harris, an Ashland Republican, responded that senators are prepared to stay.
“I made it very clear to the governor that we were here, that we’re going to stay here. Our focus was to get this done; we’re working hard to do it,” Harris said.
Harris said that without a compromise in the next day, the Senate will turn to a proposal that doesn’t contain the tax cut delay — and will have cuts and other unspecified revenue measures. That would force a conference committee in which the House and Senate will have to work out a compromise.
Strickland said Senate Republicans have relinquished their responsibility to govern.
“It’s a sad time in Ohio when we see the well-being of this state dealt with in such a cavalier, callous manner,” he said.
The Celina legislator also called into question Strickland’s willingness to work with Republicans in the state Senate — a chamber the GOP controls.
Faber said Republicans have offered two options to Strickland but that he refused to accept either.
“One was to provide the governor with votes for two-thirds of the tax freeze and leave the other one-third of tax cuts in place,” Faber said. “The governor rejected that as being unacceptable and it would have given him $600 million.”
Faber said the other option would have been to approve the tax freeze while requiring Strickland to address the next biennial budget in 18 months. Strickland rejected to plan.
“It would help us avoid the train wreck coming in 18 months, which most anticipate being a $6 to $8 billion hole,” Faber said. “If you ask Ohioans to increase their tax rate, we should do something that will make an impact in the long run.”
Faber said additional cuts to libraries and further cuts to education are not the answer to Ohio’s budget issue.
“All libraries took an 11 percent cut because of the governor,” Faber said. “They have merit they shouldn’t be cut additionally because they already did their cut. There are areas that haven’t been cut. Cuts to school are about 7 percent, if they go in place. I have concerns about those.”
Faber said he expects final action to be taken on the budget this week.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
|
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 December 2009 )
|
