State Revenue Reprise

A belated tip of the hat is in order for Beacon Journal opinion page editor Michael Douglas. Mr. Douglas picked up my theme about the real problem with Ohio's budget outlook in his Sunday column. The one-time revenue being used to balance the next budget is a patch for the gaping hole created by the shortsighted tax reforms championed by the GOP several years ago:

Neither do Taylor and her fellow Republicans take responsibility for their ample share of the shortfall. In 2005, they engineered changes in the state tax code that reduced revenues by a projected $4.4 billion in the next biennium. They slashed individual income tax rates by 21 percent. The state's regimen for taxing businesses required much reworking. What wasn't necessary was lowering further the share of taxes paid by businesses,the percentage having fallen from 40 percent in 1975 to 26.5 percent today.

Governor Ted is left with a fiscal shit sandwich and not many options other than temporarily plugging the deficit with one time money.

I second Douglas' call for some mature members of the General Assembly to step up and begin looking for some solutions for Ohio's revenue pickle. There is a measured approach that can be employed to restore some of the tax reductions without creating undue pressure on taxpayers of Ohio.