OHMYO. John Kasich has stirred up the kind of Republican opposition to an expansion of Medicaid that political observers might think was reserved for demonic Democrats only. The weapon of choice, as usual: An income tax cut.
State Sen. Chris Widener (R, Springfield) has introduced a bill before the Senate Finance Committee calling for a 4 percent cut to income taxes. The reason — he wants to return some of the state’s savings resulting from improving Medicaid coverage in Ohio to beleaguered Ohio taxpayers.
We should point out that Widener was a member of the Ohio Controlling Board that approved the Medicaid expansion championed by Kasich. According to projections, Medicaid expansion in Ohio will save the state about $400 million in the next couple of years.
Kasich is apparently in favor of more cuts to the state income tax, which was sliced retroactively for 2013 earlier this year by 8 percent and will drop an additional 9 percent in 2014 and 10 percent in 2015.
Quid pro quo, anyone? Anyone? Show of hands please.
These cuts in total are projected to save taxpayers earning between $22,000 and $43,800, the solid middle in Ohio’s tax brackets, a whopping $30 annually compared to 2012.
To put it another way, assuming they are paid every other week, these taxpayers will realize an additional $1.15 in their wallets with every single paycheck.
Whoa! Break out the funny hats and pop a couple beers, Momma! In just a couple of years, we can get one of the kids a brand new double cheeseburger off the McDonald’s value menu and have change left over! Party time!
And that’s before Widener’s additional cuts would improve those taxpayer’s tax burden by $28 annually, enough for a double cheese (with change back) right away, even before the previously approved tax cuts are completed.
Naturally, those pesky progressives have opened their filthy mouths in protest. Policy Matters Ohio suggests the additional money would be better used for public services.
What a bunch of spoil sports, eh?
A more trenchant criticism of the Medicaid expansion is that it is only authorized through 2015 by the Controlling Board’s action and could only continue if the General Assembly approves by writing it into law. The proposed tax cut, likely to exceed $360 million in the first year, would, by contrast, be permanent.
Given the existing composition of the Lege, the Medicaid approval seems about as likely to happen as the chance that snowmen will spontaneously form in Hell’s Lake of Fire and Brimstone. Also, rescinding the new tax cut because it no longer compensates for state-realized savings from improved Medicaid is about as likely as herds of unicorns suddenly prancing in joy across the lawn at the statehouse.
Widener’s opinion: “I’m a firm believer that Ohio families are the best stewards of their own money and allowing Ohio taxpayers to directly benefit from unbudgeted savings is the economically sensible thing to do.”
Okay, good sentiments, good arguments, but the primary beneficiaries of the tax cut atop already approved tax cuts would be those at the top of Ohio’s income tax brackets — Ohioans earning more than $360K annually would realize an additional $1,437 in tax savings. Those earning even more would, of course, benefit proportionately.
The savings could be used for such things as additional police and fire services, more teachers and additional caseworkers to help cash-strapped senior citizens.
But never mind those takers who respond to the imagined need for arrests of criminals following criminal activities and rush into burning buildings to get people trapped inside out, who help the young to cope with a changing world and a changing Ohio and guide the old through the bureaucratic mazes that Ohio law creates.
Nobody cares about them anyway. Or at least nobody in the Republican caucus of the General Assembly.