New Ohio House Speaker William Batchelder’s pledge to abolish the tax has sounded alarms among officials statewide. Cities, villages and townships receive 80 percent of the $285.8 million the tax generated in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010.
Communities receiving more than $500,000 last year include Centerville, Clayton, Fairborn, Beavercreek and Washington and Harrison townships.
Repeal supporters say the tax penalizes small business owners and farmers and encourages job-producing residents to leave Ohio. Matt Mayer, president of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a conservative research group, favors abolishing the tax, but said it must be done in a way “that doesn’t crush local governments.” If governments raise taxes to make up the difference, “we’ve just moved around the chairs on the Titanic,” he said.
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