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News
Herald...
Editorial:
Take real look at Kasich proposals
Sunday,
March 18, 2012
Give the
man credit.
He’s
thinking. He’s studying.
He’s got
ideas.
Gov. John
Kasich’s proposals this week to tinker with state policy on energy,
education,
health care and taxes follow the fairly unusual “mid-biennium review”
of the
state’s budget.
State
Budget Director Tim Keen said Kasich got in the habit of such look-sees
when he
was chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee in the 1980s. Congress
works
with annual budgets. The State of Ohio has a two-year budget.
But, as
Kasich is suggesting, that’s no reason to sit still and wait until next
year
for the regular state budget fight.
No, Kasich
has proposed some big changes for the state, and, as he probably should
expect
by now, has heard a lot about them from all corners.
Chief among
the governor’s proposals is a hike in the tax assessed on oil and gas
drillers
who work wells throughout the state. That increase in income would then
allow
the state to cut the income tax, which would leave more money in
residents’
pockets.
Not
surprisingly, Kasich received criticism from some quarters, chiefly
public
safety groups and advocates for the poor, who say the money entering
state
coffers from any hike in drilling taxes should fund programs that have
been
subjected to recent deep cuts in state funding.
Other
proposals from Kasich’s budget study include work to capture and reuse
waste
heat, and a plan to streamline and simplify eligibility for public
assistance.
The latter
drew praise from the Ohio Job and Family Services Director’s
Association, which
said it would help caseworkers to focus on “achieving positive outcomes
for
Ohio’s families,” according to Joel Potts, director of the association.
It’s
impressive to see Kasich sit down and study the budget, looking for
places the
state might save money, improve efficiency or boost revenue.
His ideas,
while in some cases quite controversial, deserve to be studied to
determine if
they’re worth pursuing.
Now’s the
time to work on finding solutions to the mess Ohio’s in. It makes more
sense to
do it slowly and methodically, rather than waiting for the deadline to
approach
and rash decisions to be made.
Read this
and other articles at the News Herald
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