OHIO Coal industry fights to keep tax credit alive

The tax credit encourages use of Ohio's high-sulfur coal.
COLUMBUS -- Eliminating Ohio's coal tax credit would devastate the state's coal industry and the state's Appalachian counties that are the center of that industry, proponents of a move to keep the tax credit say.
A bill to extend the tax credit through January 2012 is critical for Ohio, backers of the bill said Monday. The tax credit is set to expire at year's end.
"It's overwhelmingly important to the [coal] industry," said Michael T.W. Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Association, which represents 40 coal companies.
Bill's specifications
Under the bill, sponsored by state Sen. Joy A. Padgett, a Coshocton Republican, would extend the $3 per ton tax credit against a utility company's corporate franchise tax to encourage the use of Ohio's high-sulfur coal by providing incentives for utilities to buy coal-cleaning technology.
Right now, Ohio's coal industry employs about 2,900 people, Carey said, largely in the state's Appalachian counties. Allowing the tax credit to expire could cost Ohio those jobs plus an additional 34,800 in related industries, Carey added.
Padgett's bill was pending in the Senate's Ways and Means & amp; Economic Development Committee. Committee leaders say the panel could vote on the bill this week. The bill would still have to be approved by the full Ohio Senate and Ohio House.
Republican Gov. Bob Taft was still considering the bill, said Orest Holubec, Taft spokesman.