Taft: Economic initiatives will help Ohio in the future

COLUMBUS — As he prepares to leave office, Gov. Bob Taft says he hopes that public perception about his administration will be more about what he tried to do, instead of the ethics-related controversies that arose.

“It’s my hope that it will be viewed as an administration that prepared Ohio to compete in the 21st-century economy,” the Republican Taft said in a recent interview. “I really believe that because of major initiatives that we have taken Ohio is poised for greater prosperity.”

Taft points to recently enacted reforms in the state tax system and other programs as accomplishments that will outlive his administration, which ends early next month when Democrat Ted Strickland takes office.

Strickland, a congressman from Lisbon, defeated GOP nominee J. Kenneth Blackwell last month.

“I think our tax reform plan is going to help significantly to retain and hopefully attract manufacturing jobs,” the governor said from the ceremonial office in the Statehouse.

The tax revisions in the current two-year, $51.2 billion state budget that runs through June cut personal income tax rates by 21 percent. The changes also phased out the corporate franchise tax and replaced it with a phase-in of a “commercial activity tax” on business receipts.

The tax changes also phased out the tangible personal property taxes on machinery and equipment, changes lauded by heavy industry.

“We’ve eliminated the penalty for investing,” the governor said of the TPPT phase-out. “That’s basically a tax on investment.”

The governor said the state has also put an emphasis on developing high-tech jobs in industries such as fuel-cell development.

“That’s a complement to our focus on traditional manufacturing,” said Taft, who was first elected governor in 1998 and then re-elected to another four-year term in 2002.