Ohio bill cuts taxes, restricts wind farms 

GROVE CITY, Ohio – Gov. John Kasich signed into law Monday a bill containing $400 million more in tax cuts, insisting the changes will have an “accordion effect” on both ends of the income spectrum.

He used his line-item veto pen just three times on non-controversial items, but he let stand a provision setting a new restriction on wind farms.

House Bill 483, which took effect immediately upon his signature, accelerates the gradual implementation of personal income tax cuts set in motion last year, reaching the total of 10 percent in 2014, a year ahead of schedule.

It expands an existing income tax break for small businesses from the prior 50 percent on the first $250,000 in income to up to 75 percent, assuming the state’s expected budget surpluses hold up.

It doubles the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income families to 10 percent of the federal equivalent. The law also increases the personal exemption on tax returns for those earning up to $80,000 a year.

“We can’t have a tax bill that only lowers the top rate,” the Republican governor said. “We have to have an accordion effect. We have to have a situation where, yes, we have to lower our top rate, because we have people leaving this state left and right to go to a safe harbor where they have no income tax.”

But in a joint statement, House Minority Leader Tracy Maxwell Heard (D., Columbus) and Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni (D., Youngstown), said the decisions reflected at the mid-point of the current two-year budget set the wrong priorities.

“It is unforgivable that this budget does nothing to stop the increase in property taxes and other local levies,” they said. “In fact, this new budget continues Governor Kasich’s trend of cutting funds for local communities and education to create income tax cuts for the top 1 percent.”

The governor chose not to veto a provision setting a new minimum setback distance for wind turbines.

Prior law requires 1,125 feet between the extended tip of a turbine and the nearest home. The new law changes that to 1,125 feet from the property line, a move that wind farms argue will decrease the number of turbines they can erect, making wind farms less economically feasible.

The move was seen by the industry as a sequel to Mr. Kasich’s signature on Friday to a law freezing for two years Ohio’s mandate that utilities find at least 25 percent of their power from greener sources by 2025.

When asked after the bill-signing ceremony at a suburban Columbus food bank why he let the wind farm provision stand, Mr. Kasich instead explained why he signed Senate Bill 310. He said he would have vetoed a bill that indefinitely froze the renewable standards.

“Is the 25 percent number the right number? I don’t think so,” he said. “It was snatched out really without any real science behind it. It was going to become increasingly difficult for both consumers and businesses, so we should take a pause and do a reset.”

Ohio has two large wind farms in Van Wert and Paulding counties, Blue Creek and Timber Road. The new law applies only to new wind farms, but opponents of the language argue that the two western Ohio wind farms would not have happened if the new rule were in place at the time those decisions were made.

Although some provisions of the bill have drawn criticism, Mr. Kasich and lawmakers again drew praise from social-service advocates for putting more money into such things as addiction treatment, mental health, food bank, and adult and child protective services.