COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Republican leader of the Ohio House is accusing the new Democratic governor of reneging on a promise and withholding needed details, signaling a bitter fight on the state's upcoming two-year budget before the bill is even drafted.
According to the Associated Press, Speaker Jon Husted said Governor Ted Strickland on Wednesday told him and Senate President Bill Harris that he would work with the legislature on protecting small gas stations and others that would be hurt if a petroleum exemption in the state's two-year-old business [image-nocss] tax is allowed to expire in July; however, in his State of the State address that day, Strickland said the petroleum industry must share equally in the state's tax burden, and his budget proposal released Thursday called for allowing the exemption to expire.
I've never been in a meeting where someone looks at me and says they will work with me on something and then walks out and gives a speech to the state of Ohio that goes back on what he said, Husted told The Cleveland Plain Dealer on Friday. I don't work well with people like that.
Strickland told AP that he has consistently and publicly said he wants the state's tax on business revenue to apply to all businesses equally, as it was written, and that includes the petroleum business. It's unfortunate if the speaker left that meeting believing I had made a commitment to him but no such commitment was made, he said.
A bill drafted from Strickland's 1,000-page plan for the 2008-09 budget is expected to be released this week.
The speaker also said he wants more details on Strickland's plan to sell off Ohio's future tobacco settlement funds to investors for an upfront payout, instead of continuing to accept payments over several years, and use the money toward school construction and lowering property taxes for senior citizens and the disabled. Husted said he doesn't believe the plan leaves enough money for promised school construction projects, but Strickland spokesperson Keith Dailey told AP it would.
Strickland told the news service that he deliberately kept many proposals close to the vest last week because he didn't want to be distracted by early lobbying. If any group feels the least bit threatened in a budget they immediately go to work, he said. There's time to discuss what we've proposed.Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.