Friday, September 19, 2003
& yen;The secretary of state says Ohio is on the worst spending binge of any state.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell says the state needs to repeal the 1-percent sales tax increase to return the state to fiscal discipline.
"We don't have a revenue problem in Ohio, we have a spending problem," Blackwell, a Republican, said Tuesday.
Blackwell and the Citizens for Tax Repeal, a political action committee, filed signatures and proposed ballot language with the Ohio Attorney General's Office in an effort to force the repeal of the sales-tax increase, passed earlier this year as part of the state's two-year, $48.8 billion budget.
Blackwell said he will seek a statewide effort to collect nearly 97,000 signatures by Dec. 20, which would place the proposed repeal before state lawmakers.
If the GOP-led Legislature fails to repeal the sales-tax increase, Blackwell said he will take steps to place the proposed repeal before voters on the November 2004 general election ballot.
Blackwell, a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2006, said ending the temporary tax increase, which is to expire June 30, 2005, and reducing state spending will be keys to helping Ohio retain residents and businesses.
"Businesses are fleeing," he said.
Blackwell said the state "has been on the worst spending binge of any state in the country."
"Other states have imposed fiscal discipline and we have not," according to Blackwell.
"Other states have cut spending and we lack the will. Other states have tightened their belt and we have loosened ours."
The current two-year, $48.8 billion state spending plan that runs through June 2005 is an increase from the two-year, $44 billion budget that expired this past June 30.
Criticism
Other leading Republicans, such as Gov. Bob Taft, have criticized Blackwell's proposal saying that, if successful, it would cripple state services.
But Blackwell said eliminating the temporary sales-tax increase is possible without wrecking the state budget.
"What we're talking about are adjustments in a spending binge," Blackwell said.
Blackwell said without the sales-tax increase, state spending would have risen 4.7 percent, an increase he characterized as "very reasonable."
Blackwell said the tax increase helped state spending increase 11 percent between the current and past budget cycles.
Blackwell said he will spell out a plan to protect services without a tax increase.
The sales-tax increase is to generate $1.3 billion in each budget year, according to projections.