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Saturday, September 18, 2010
John Kasich TV ad calls Ohio one of highest taxed states
Quote: “You can’t raise taxes in Ohio. We are one of the highest taxed states in the country.” John Kasich on Aug. 22, in a television campaign ad
Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich amplified his tax message recently with the claim that Ohioans pay more taxes than people in most other states.
While he frequently makes the statement on the campaign trail, the claim is the stinger in a campaign television ad that began airing statewide in late August.
“You can’t raise taxes in Ohio. We are one of the highest taxed states in the country. … If you raise prices in the state you drive taxpayers away.”
Kasich made similar claims Sept. 14 during the first gubernatorial debate with Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, making the issue worth examining now.
The statement, Kasich says, refers to an individual’s tax burden — the sum of state and local taxes, such as property taxes and local sales taxes, that an individual pays. And he specifically uses a ranking by the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation.
The Tax Foundation ranks Ohio’s total tax burden seventh highest, according to its 2008 study, the most recent available. Among 50 states, seventh qualifies in our book as “one of the highest.”
But the ranking deserves more discussion because of an ongoing debate among tax experts about how to best evaluate or measure the total tax burden.
The Tax Foundation first combines state and local tax collections, and makes projections, or estimates, for the year the study is completed. The Tax Foundation also considers taxes Ohioans may pay in other states, and vice versa. It then divides the state’s total tax collections by total personal income.
Translated: The average Ohioan pays about 10.4 percent of his or her income to state and local taxes compared to the national average of 9.7 percent. Ohio takes a hit in the Tax Foundation study because of its relatively high income tax rate.
Other tax experts, including those at the Federation of Tax Administrators, agree that combining state and local taxes and dividing that by total personal income offers a reasonable way to look at the burden. But these experts stick with the raw U.S. Census data without making any adjustments or projections.
Ohio has the 16th highest total tax burden — all state and local taxes — as a percentage of personal income, according to the Federation of Tax Administrators’ crunching of U.S. Census numbers. That ranking moves Ohio from the top quarter of highest taxed states to the top third, giving the state a bit more cover.
The Ohio Tax Department likes to brag about another view of tax-burden numbers offered this year, also by the Federation of Tax Administrators, but one that only looks at state taxes.
By that measure, Ohio has the 33rd highest state tax burden as a percentage of personal income. That means only 17 other states collected a lower percentage of taxes than Ohio. But beware: This ranking looks only at the taxes imposed by the state — not those imposed by local authorities .
The problem for voters is that experts will be debating the issue long beyond the election, so PolitiFact Ohio wants to keep Kasich’s claim in the context of the governor’s race.
By citing the Tax Foundation study, Kasich is invoking several taxes the governor can’t easily influence — such as school levies passed by voters, or sales taxes boosted by county commissioners — to paint Ohio’s tax picture as bleak.
The claim also obscures improvements Ohio has made at the state level in reducing both business and personal income taxes since 2005, including a nearly 17 percent cut in personal income tax since then .
One thing about Kasich’s claim is clear: By one measure, it’s accurate. But how to best define tax burden is cloudier, and a look at other research shows that rankings can vary wildly depending on which taxes are included, which data sets are employed and which projections are applied.
For these reasons, we rate Kasich’s claim Half True.
What is PolitiFactOhio?
Several times a week, the Dayton Daily News will publish content from PolitiFactOhio to help you be more informed as a citizen and a voter.
PolitiFact Ohio is a partnership of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer and PolitiFact.com.
PolitiFactOhio investigates comments from public figures and runs their claims through the “Truth-O-Meter.”
The comments are fact checked and then ranked as true, mostly true, half true, barely true and false. If someone has gone off the deep end, we will rank their statements as “pants on fire.”
Read past PolitiFactOhio stories, see how politicians rate in previous Truth-O-Meter rulings. PolitiFactOhio.com
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TweetKaren Kasich finishes Air Force Marathon
Karen Kasich, 46, wife of gubernatorial candidate John Kasich, finished the 14th annual Air Force Marathon on Saturday in four hours, 10 minutes and 10 seconds. That calculates to just over a nine-and-a-half minute per mile pace.
It was her second marathon.
Republican John Kasich is running against incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland for Ohio governor.
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