By Kimball Perry
Cincinnati Post staff reporter
Clifton resident Terri Mastin goes to a lot of movies and doesn't want to have to fork over at least 5 percent more for her tickets, as is being proposed by Ohio Gov. Bob Taft in his attempt to balance Ohio's budget.
"He's running the state into the ground," she said Friday. "I think he needs to spend a little bit more time looking for solutions than taxing us to death.
"He looks like a buffoon. There's got to be a better alternative."
Taft, hoping to overhaul the state's tax system and raise $2.3 billion to address a $720 million deficit this year and a deficit for the budget year beginning July 1 of as much as $4 billion, is proposing extending the 5 percent sales tax to services and goods not currently covered by it. Among them: taxi rides, movies, dry cleaning, parking, tattoos and newspapers.
The governor's proposal prompted Warren County resident Susan Hellebusch to muse that a name change was in order for him.
"Maybe Bob Taft should worry about cutting the budget instead of raising taxes across the board, especially on service industries," she said. "I'm beginning to think his name should be Governor Tax."
Jeff Wieste calls Taft's proposal -- which, if approved, takes effect July 1 -- unfair because it targets some businesses and services but omits others.
"I'm not a big fan of the sales tax and I'm certainly not in favor of expanding it to services," said Wieste, manager at Skincraft, a Corryville tattoo parlor.
Ray Kroner thinks the sales tax expansion might take his business to the cleaners -- and he's a dry cleaner.
"It's going to hurt our customers because we've got to pass it along," said Kroner, owner of Cheviot's Kroner Cleaners.
"We're glad to do out part but we feel like we've hit our limits. -- This is one more bitter pill to swallow."
Some of his customers already resent dry cleaning as a costly but "necessary evil." Kroner predicted even more resentment if tax is added to their bills.
Craig Barber knows exactly how Kroner feels.
Regional manager for Central Parking, he just moved here six months ago from New York, where parking is already taxed. "It's a pass-through tax," he said. "Suddenly, a cost that people feel somewhat negative about will be rising.
"When you're a community struggling like we are -- and I'd say we are -- this is not good. We're hardly in a position to roll back rates."
Taft's proposal, Barber noted, could hit his business twice, because in addition to proposing taxing the parking industry, the governor also proposes increasing real estate taxes.
The proposal would affect small businesses, too.
Frank Sullivan, owner of a Hyde Park landscaping company, said he was so upset by the plan that "it sure as hell would have me voting Democrat. I just can't imagine it," he said.
Jennifer Mooney, spokeswoman for Time Warner Cable, can -- but her company already is gearing up to fight it.
"The bottom line is we are going to oppose this," she said. "We're already taxed significantly locally and our competitors (companies offering satellite dish signals) are not."
Taft also hopes to get an extra $18 million annually by levying income tax on Kentucky residents who work in Ohio.
The good news for them is it's not likely to make much of a monetary difference in the total amount of income taxes they pay because they'd get a credit against their Kentucky income taxes.
The governor's plan did not play well with some Ohio legislators, either, who are discussing the possibility of a temporary penny increase in the state sales tax as an alternative.
Senate Republicans said the idea was one of several being debated and is considered a last resort after much deeper cuts to the state budget.
The 1 percent increase "is something that seems to have the most legs to it," Sen. Jay Hottinger of Newark, the third-ranking Republican and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said Friday.
Increasing the 5 percent tax by 1 percent would raise about $1.2 billion a year, Hottinger said.
"All of us will be looking at the cutting side first, but there's a realization on many people's parts that it's not probable we'll be able to totally cut our way out," he said.
Republicans hold the majority in the Senate and House.
The theory behind the proposal is that "a broad-based source is better than nickel-and-diming every service industry out there," said Sen. Kevin Coughlin, a Republican from Cuyahoga Falls. "The hope would be doing it on a temporary basis would garner it enough votes to see it pass."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Publication Date: 02-01-2003