SCHOOL FUNDING

TAX HEADED FOR BALLOT

* Approved by the Senate, a proposed sales tax increase awaits the governor's signature and then approval by voters.


Published: Wednesday, February 18, 1998
Page: 1A
By: By Tim Miller Columbus Bureau
NEWS



COLUMBUS - It's all but official. Ohio voters will decide May 5 whether to raise the state sales tax by a penny to provide about $500 million a year for schools.

If approved, the tax increase would also save homeowners about half a billion dollars in property taxes.

If defeated, it would be back to the drawing board for the Ohio General Assembly, which has been struggling for nearly a year to write a new school funding program as ordered by the Ohio Supreme Court.

The Republican-controlled state Senate voted 23-10 Tuesday in favor of the tax issue and sent the bill to the governor. The GOP-controlled House approved it last week.

Gov. George Voinovich, who supports the tax, said he will sign the bill as soon as it reaches his desk. "Now the people of Ohio will have a chance to discuss whether or not they want to invest more money in education," said Mike Dawson, Voinovich's press secretary.

It could be a heated discussion in the next 11 weeks.

Tax opponents have threatened to challenge the tax bill in court and, even before the vote was final, the National Taxpayers Union of Ohio filed papers registering an opposition committee called "Ohioans Against a 20% Tax Increase."

The name reflects the percentage increase in the state sales tax - it is now 5 cents on the dollar. Even some groups that have been supportive of new money for schools are unsure what position they will take on this tax issue. The Ohio Association of School Boards, for example, may remain neutral or oppose the tax because it does not generate enough revenue.

The Ohio Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, is the only school group that supported the bill prior to passage, but it has not decided how much money it might put into a campaign.

While the bill generates about $500 million a year for property tax relief for homeowners, it leaves it to the Legislature to determine exactly how that money will be distributed.

The Senate vote was generally along party lines. Two northeast Ohio Democrats - Judy Sheerrer of Cleveland and Leigh Herington of Aurora - joined the 21 Republicans in support. Most Democrats argued that the tax works a hardship on the poor because they pay the same rate in sales taxes and renters do not get the property tax break.

"This is Robin Hood in reverse," said Senate Minority Leader Ben Espy, D-Columbus. "We are taking from the poor and giving to the rich."

The tax increase and related school bills are in response to a Supreme Court decision last March 24 declaring the current school funding system unconstitutional. It said the system relies too much on local property taxes and results in wide differences in per-pupil spending among Ohio's 611 school districts.

Bill Phillis, executive director of the school coalition that brought the lawsuit, said it opposes the Legislature's school plan, including the tax increase. "This in no way provides the systemic overhaul of the system that the court ordered," he said.

The plan must first go to Perry County Common Pleas Court Judge Linton Lewis, where the original suit was filed, and eventually to the Supreme Court. Lewis said he will wait for the May vote before ruling on the General Assembly's plan.

While the state sales tax is currenlty 5 percent, many Ohioans pay a higher rate because counties can piggyback a local sales tax on the state rate. In Montgomery County, for instance, buyers now pay 6.5 percent.

* FOR INTERNET UPDATES point your Web browser to www.activedayton.com

Related on 6A

* Gubernatorial candidates state their positions.

* Montgomery County commissioners wonder what effect the sales tax issue will have on other ballot initiatives.

FOLLOWING TABLE NOT IN PUBLISHED VERSION.

How a one-cent state sales tax increase would affect local county sales tax rates.

County current rate rate with increase
Montgomery 6.5 percent 7.5 percent

Greene 6 percent 7 percent

Warren 6 percent 7

Miami 6.25 percent 7.25

Darke 6 percent 7

Preble 6.5 percent 7.5

Note: A tax rate of 5 percent in each county represents the current statewide sales tax. The counties have added on local sales taxes for county operations and other purposes.




PHOTO:
Ohio Senate President Richard Finan (right) R-Cincinnati, sits with Sen. Roy Ray, R-Akron, during the school funding debate Tuesday.

PHOTO CREDIT: JACK KUSTRON ASSOCIATED PRESS
GRAPH: Sales tax hike effect on your pocketbook

Sample prices before and after tax increase

CREDIT: DAYTON DAILY NEWS

NOT AVAILABLE FOR ELECTRONIC LIBRARY; SEE MICROFILM.




Copyright , Dayton Daily News. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.


Dayton Daily News archives are stored on a SAVE (tm) newspaper library system from MediaStream, Inc., a Knight-Ridder Inc. company.