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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > September > 01
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Cavemen to greet lawmakers at energy forum
When House Minority Leader John Boehner and four other Republican lawmakers convene an energy summit in Columbus tomorrow, they’ll be greeted by protestors dressed as cavemen.
No, it’s not the guys from that series of Geico commercials. Instead, it’ll be a handful of protestors irritated that the lawmakers, which will include Rep. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, Pat Tiberi, R-Columbus and Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, opposed climate change legislation that passed the House earlier this summer.
The group, a coalition called Bring Ohio Back that includes the Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation in Ohio, is calling the group of five congressmen the “Stone Age 5.” Check out the website they’ve put up to bash the group: www.thestoneagers.com
The group is also making light of Boehner referring to the climate change bill as a “pile of sh—.”
A Boehner spokesman said Boehner and other Republicans support an alternative that they feel will be better for Ohio business. They said the bill the House passed would “cripple Ohio manufacturing and farmers, destroy jobs and raise energy prices for families and small businesses./” \
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Penn National funding the fight against VLTs, affidavit says
Penn National Gaming, owner of the former Argosy casino in southern Indiana and the Toledo Raceway, is bankrolling a lawsuit and campaign to stop Ohio racetracks from becoming ‘racinos’ with slot machines, an affidavit filed Tuesday, Sept. 1, says.
The state Attorney General’s office filed the affidavit in the LetOhioVote case, which is scheduled to be argued Wednesday, Sept. 2, before the Ohio Supreme Court.
State Sen. Bill Seitz swore that former lawmaker Tom Brinkman told him in late July that Penn National was funding the LetOhioVote litigation and any referendum campaign that might follow. Brinkman is on the LetOhioVote side of the litigation.
Officials from Penn National could not be immediately reached for comment.
Penn National and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert are pushing a ballot issue that asks voters to amend the state constitution to allow four full-blown casinos, one each in Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.
Separately, Gov. Ted Strickland and the Legislature decided to add 17,500 slot machines to Ohio’s seven racetracks to help bring in $933 million in revenue to the state budget over the next two years. The Legislature specifically said that the VLT plan was not subject to a referendum — a provision that is now subject to the lawsuit.
Racinos would compete with Penn National and Gilbert’s casinos for gambling business.
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It’s a tax on food. No, it isn’t. Yes, it is.
Rapid fire questions came from the Ohio Supreme Court bench on Tuesday, Sept. 1 during arguments on a business tax case that could excuse Ohio grocers from paying $188 million a year and land them $350 million in refunds.
The grocers argued that they shouldn’t have to pay the “Commercial Activities Tax,” a new business tax that replaced other corporate taxes in 2005. They made the case that it amounts to a sales tax on food, which the Ohio Constitution has prohibited since 1936.
Attorney General Richard Cordray, who argued the case himself, said the CAT isn’t applied to specific transactions of food sales but instead is calculated based on gross receipts.
The grocers countered that the gross receipts are based in large part on the sale of food. “The court should reject the Legislature’s attempt to circumvent the constitution,” said Gerhardt Gosnell II, attorney for the Ohio Grocers Association.
Gosnell and Cordray each quoted case law to support their point, with the seven justices asking questions.
Cordray warned that if the justices side with the grocers, it would blow a hole in the state budget and he said “Others will follow with their challenges. They’re waiting to see the outcome of this case.”
Chief Justice Tom Moyer, however, flatly said the amount of money the tax generates from grocers for the state budget is “not our concern.”
Meanwhile, Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based think tank, concluded in a report on the CAT that it is falling $200 million a year short of projected revenues during the slumping economy. Policy Matters is urging lawmakers to look at ways to bolster the CAT so that it meets projected revenue numbers.
The supreme court is expected to rule on the grocers’ case within six months. It is unclear whether consumer would benefit if the court ordered a CAT refund to grocers. Grocers would continue to pay the CAT on their gross receipts derived from non-food sales, which amount to about one-third of their total sales, according to Tom Jackson, president and chief executive of the Ohio Grocers Association.
