Things will get stranger in state government

COLUMBUS

It was a strange week in state politics, with a Republican governor adamant about a tax hike, a bunch of Democratic lawmakers talking out of both sides of their mouths and a commander in chief who forgot to mention a couple of important parts of the state’s energy sector in a speech on related policies.

And it’s bound to get stranger over the next couple of months, as the legislature scrambles on some high-profile law changes and the presidential campaign switches into high gear.

But consider for now the Capital City scene of the recent days:

Gov. John Kasich is locked in a showdown with Republicans in the Ohio House and Senate, who are balking at his plan to increase tax rates on horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, activities while decreasing income tax rates by the same amount.

The governor believes now is the time to stake its claim to some of the big profits oil companies will take from their oil and gas production. He says the rates proposed in his plan are still lower than many other oil-producing states, and he says every penny collected in fracking taxes will be used to provide a corresponding income tax cut for all Ohioans.

Republican lawmakers aren’t sold on the plan. Last week, Rep. Ron Amstutz, a Republican from Wooster and chairman of the chamber’s finance committee, removed the tax reform portions from Kasich’s mid-biennium budget correction bill, saying such changes should be fully vetted before a final vote.

Off the cuff, Kasich appears to have the political advantage on the issue, particularly with rising gasoline costs. Though fracking probably won’t lead to lower prices at the gas pump, the governor’s bound to gain allies among the voting public when they find out, as he puts it, that big producers are paying 20 cents in taxes per $100-plus oil barrels.

Democrats in the Ohio House weren’t happy about the $1.7 billion capital appropriations bill that moved through the chamber last week.

The legislation outlines construction projects throughout the state, including a first-of-its-kind cooperative approach to improvements planned at Ohio’s public colleges and universities.

Usually, capital bills pass with lots of community projects, earmarks pursued by individual lawmakers for the benefit of their districts. Though earmark is a dirty word among the voting public at the moment, such projects, proponents will say, are important for the economic viability of their hometowns.

But Kasich and Statehouse Republicans didn’t include any such projects in the new capital bill, saying such earmarks would be considered at a later date once they figure out a new way of approaching the subject.

Democrats on the House’s finance committee made their discontent over that approach known, with Akron Rep. Vernon Sykes calling the bill “unconscionable” and Elyria Rep. Matt Lundy telling other members that he doesn’t work for the governor.

Most members of the minority caucus verbally voted “no” on the budget bill in committee, but several turned around and quietly changed their votes to “yes” when it came time to sign the sheet.

On the floor, the final vote was 93-2. Sykes, Lundy and seven other Democrats who had said “no” in committee voted “yes” on the floor.

President Barack Obama was in town tout what he’s titled an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy, calling for a streamlined federal process for permitting new pipelines to carry oil to refineries, increased development of solar, wind and other renewable and advanced energy technologies and more fuel efficient cars.

But the president did not mention anything about coal, a mainstay Ohio industry that produces most of the state’s electricity, or fracking, the emerging means of extracting oil and gas by pumping large volumes of water, chemicals and sand into deep underground shale formations.

Most politicians, from both sides of the political aisle, know the importance of coal and give at least a token shoutout to producers during such speeches. And fracking promises tens of thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in economic impact.

It’s strange that the president wouldn’t make a passing reference to either.

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com.