Local senator to introduce bill to eliminate income tax in Ohio

TIPP CITY — State Senator Steve Huffman from Tipp City thinks its time to get rid of Ohio’s income tax. He’s introducing a plan to end the tax in the next 10 years.

News Center 7′s Mike Campbell learned about the plan and talked to Huffman and taxpayers about how it might impact you and me.

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Every April 15, for those who don’t have their taxes online, there is a big rush to bring the paper forms to the post office to file taxes. But, if Sen. Huffman has his way, you will soon have one less form to drop in the box.

“We’ve been slowly decreasing it,” Huffman said.

Huffman represents an area north of Dayton in the Ohio Senate. He said lawmakers have been making small reductions of the state income tax.

“We had rates at about 6 or 7 percent about 10 years and we collected $8.5 billion,” Huffman said.

He said those actions haven’t hurt Ohio’s finances. He continued by saying 6 percent income tax raised just over $8 billion in 2011.

A decade later, with the rate dropped under 4 percent, the income tax raised way more - $10.2 billion.

Huffman said now is time for a bold move and eliminate Ohio’s income tax in the next decade.

“Basically, 1/10th of each bracket is decreased every year for 10 years and it is gone,” Huffman said.

Joan Foy said, “I think it is awesome. We have a lot of people retiring and moving to Texas and Florida, relocating so maybe have a lot of people stay in Ohio.”

Foy said it’s not usually difficult to convince taxpayers to applaud the idea of lowering or eliminating taxes.

“So, that’s more growth to the economy. More money to the stores and to the restaurants. I think it is a great idea,” Foy said.

There is a possibility if you eliminate income tax, lawmakers might decide to protect against possible revenue loss by raising other state fees or counties could raise sales tax.

Huffman thinks the economy solves the problem itself with fewer restrictions.

“Once you return that money to taxpayers, they’re spending it more and there is more tax revenue from it,” Huffman said.

If you eliminate state income taxes, funding state agencies like Ohio EPA office in Dayton are always a concern.

Huffman said there are already nine states, most notably Texas and Florida, without income tax that appear to be doing fine.

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