Gov. Kasich proposes tax and education changes

COLUMBUS (AP) — Gov. John Kasich rolled out an ambitious election-year policy document today that delivers a promised income-tax cut through increases in tobacco and other taxes, and streamlines government offerings for jobseekers and the poor.

The fate of the Republican governor’s plan is uncertain. Lawmakers he will ask to approve the measure face particularly competitive elections this year.

Testimony was set to begin on the bill Wednesday in the GOP-led Ohio House’s powerful Ways & Means Committee.

Kasich, who also faces re-election this fall, proposes reducing Ohio income taxes by 8.5 percent over the next three years, which would lower the top tax rate to 4.88 percent by 2016. The administration estimates that would mean a cumulative tax savings from 2011 to 2016 of about $350 for a single parent with one child who’s eligible for the earned-income tax credit as well as for a median-income couple with two kids, and cumulative savings of about $280 for middle-class families with one child.

The nearly $2.2 billion reduction would be made up for through increases in taxes on commercial activity, cigarettes and drilling.

Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, Kasich’s presumptive Democratic challenger in November, criticized the governor’s tax package as primarily benefiting the wealthy.

“As governor, I will focus on growing our economy from the middle out, rather than top down,” he said in a statement. “... Ohio’s seniors and most vulnerable should not have to pay for John Kasich’s giveaways to the very well off.”