Ohio Governor’s Sales Tax Plan Dropped by House Republicans

The Republican leadership in the Ohio House released a revised budget bill yesterday that completely stripped out Governor John Kasich’s proposal to extend the sales tax to advertising and a broad range of other business services. The revised budget would make no changes in the sales tax and cut personal income taxes by 7 percent as opposed to the 20 percent cut that was part of the Governor’s plan. The House Finance Committee will hold several days of hearings on the revised budget and plans to send it to the House floor next week.  

While this is a very positive development, our work in Ohio is not done. Some or all of the sales tax extensions could reappear when the Senate considers the budget. Also, the House Finance Chairman, Representative Ron Amstutz, announced that the House would continue to work on “tax reform” even after the budget leaves the House, with the expectation that more tax changes would be included in the final budget to be passed by June 30th.

ANA has been working with our members and local industry groups in Ohio to oppose the Governor’s plan to tax advertising and other business services. We helped form the Ohio Advertising Tax Coalition, which has an excellent website (www.noadtax.com) and has been holding grass roots meetings with all of the members of the Ohio House. Jim Davidson, the head lobbyist for The Advertising Coalition (TAC), our Washington, D.C. group that opposes ad taxes at the federal level, testified before the Finance Committee in Columbus and explained why imposing a sales tax on advertising was bad tax policy.

We will now be working with the coalition to shift our focus to members of the Ohio Senate. 

If you have any questions or information about the tax proposals in Ohio or any other states, please contact Dan Jaffe (djaffe@ana.net) in ANA’s Washington, D.C. office at 202.296.1883.