Governor lists top priorities for 2006

The governor is planning to announce a new education initiative in January.
By Jeff Ortega
Vindicator correspondent
COLUMBUS -- Getting help for Ohio's struggling automotive industry is among Gov. Bob Taft's top priorities for 2006.
"The auto industry provides 150,000 good jobs [(in Ohio)]," Taft said in a year-end interview. "It's a very important sector of the economy."
General Motors, which has a strong Ohio presence, has sustained multibillion-dollar losses this year. Delphi, the automotive parts supplier also with an Ohio presence, has filed for bankruptcy reorganization and has asked its labor unions to accept wage cuts to help return solvency to the company.
Taft is touting plans he said will help auto assembly plants in Ohio as well as the auto-supply industry.
The governor said he would support legislation proposed by House Speaker Jon Husted, a Kettering Republican, that would create a so-called Auto Revitalization Tax Credit that would modify Ohio's job retention tax credit by lowering the investment required of auto industry employers to qualify for an exemption of up to 75 percent of a company's corporate franchise or income tax liability.
Next year's priority
The governor said seeking legislative passage of the proposed measure, which is being carried in the Ohio House by state Rep. Randy Law, a Warren Republican, would be a priority for his administration next year.
Taft also is pledging additional assistance in grants, loans, potential tax credits and other dollars to benefit the state's automotive industry. "We are concerned about Delphi and some of the other companies," Taft said. Taft said he would meet with top auto industry executives in January when he travels to the Detroit Auto Show.
As he enters the last year of his second and final four-year term in office, Taft said promoting Ohio's efforts at boosting the business climate will be a top priority as well to hopefully spur private investment in the state.
The two-year, $51.2 billion state budget that became effective in July included several Taft-backed provisions including a 21-percent across-the-board cut in state personal income tax rates over five years; a phase out of the corporate franchise tax to be replaced with a new broad-based, low rate "commercial activity tax" on business receipts; and a phase out of the tangible personal property taxes on business machinery, inventory and equipment.
In education, the governor said he would push for an initiative, to be outlined in his State of the State message in early 2006, to boost education. "We're looking at initiatives for increasing the value of the high school diploma from the standpoint of certifying that a student is well prepared," the governor said, declining to talk specifics.
"We need to continue to raise the bar on education," Taft said. "We compete with other states and now increasingly the world."
Convicted, fined
Taft was the subject of controversy in August as he became the first sitting Ohio governor convicted of a crime. Taft was charged with four misdemeanor counts that he failed to report several gifts on financial disclosure statements as required by law for years 2001 through 2004. The governor pleaded "no contest" to the charges in Franklin County Municipal Court. He was convicted and fined $4,000.
The convictions stemmed from at least one of the probes connected to controversies surrounding a $50 million rare-coin investment at the state Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
The last year saw successes for the governor such as the legislative endorsement of many of Taft's proposed tax reforms and the November passage at the ballot box of the $2 billion "Jobs for Ohio" bond package that included a $500 million bond issue in support of Taft's "Third Frontier Project" to boost high-tech jobs.
But despite that, the criminal conviction, Taft said, looms as a low point for 2005.
"It was a difficult year from a personal standpoint," Taft said. "I believe I faced up to it; accepted it."
Outside perspectives
One Republican legislative leader agreed that despite the convictions the governor had a successful year.
Senate President Bill M. Harris, an Ashland Republican, said the governor worked hard with the Legislature on tax reform.
"I think the governor's leadership and the governor's standing with the [House] speaker and with myself, when a lot of people were not enthused about tax reform, he stood with us and sent the message that it was important," Harris said of Taft. "That showed his commitment."
But one of the top Democrats in the Ohio Senate disagreed. "I think he's been the biggest embarrassment to the state," state Sen. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown said of Taft.
Hagan, the Senate's fourth-ranking Democrat, was referring to a recent issue of Time magazine that named Taft one of the nation's three worst governors.
"We haven't done what we should have done for education; lowering the cost of health care," Hagan said.
As another gubernatorial election looms next year, Taft said he will be thinking about his future. The governor is prevented by term limits from seeking a third consecutive four-year term in office. Taft says he's not taking sides in the GOP gubernatorial primary in May.
Taft said he's is pondering seeking work in education after leaving the governor's office.
"I have a passion for education," Taft said.