State Rep. Kathleen Chandler of Kent has shown courage in saying the possibility of a tax increase should be part of the budget discussions currently under way in Columbus.
With a budget deficit now predicted at $3.2 billion or even worse, the choice, Chandler correctly says, is between slashing funding for schools, food banks, libraries and health providers or creating additional revenues through taxation.
Ohio currently is cutting taxes, which is one reason the deficit appears so large. These are the cuts that were enacted in 2005 when the economy was booming and they involve reducing the income tax, phasing out the personal property tax, exempting a sales tax exemption for lobbying, of all things, and for debt collection.
The idea for the cuts was to make the state more inviting for new, prospective businesses and make it less attractive for longstanding businesses to leave the state, as recently occurred in Dayton with the departure of its flagship company, NCR, which left Ohio for Atlanta.
Why not postpone the cuts that are going into effect? According to some estimates, that alone would raise $800 million for Ohio and help it fund services that benefit the poor and, in the case of libraries, whose support is scheduled for huge reductions, the general public as well.
With the economy in the tank, not many businesses are expanding at this point, so the damage by slowing or deferring the tax reductions would not augment what critics of Ohio's taxation policies call an anti-business climate.