John Kasich (R) wants to be the next governor of Ohio and wants to eliminate Ohio's income tax while at the same time creating jobs. Not too original for a Republican; their genetic makeup contains a gene that is opposed to paying any money out of their pocket for the benefits government provides. As for creating jobs, everyone wants to do that, but Kasich believes that you have to give tax breaks to the wealthy to create jobs. Wasn't that what George W. Bush did? And why were fewer Americans working when Bush left office than when he took office?
But more importantly, Mr. Kasich has not revealed how he would replace the money generated by the income tax he wishes to remove. He may want to increase the Ohio sales tax as did a previous Republican governor. That of course would increase the tax burden on the middle class and the poor -- the classic Republican way of moving wealth from the middle class to the wealthy.
But, even more likely, his plan would eliminate jobs, the jobs of state employees. So the question becomes: how many and which jobs does he wish to eliminate?
How many highway patrolmen will he lay off? How many Ohio Highway Transportation workers will he fire? How many teachers, health inspectors, job and family service employees, insurance department employees, Motor Vehicle Bureau employees, mental health workers, or NRD employees?
The State of Ohio already has serious budgetary issues, and now the man who wants to be governor is going to try to eliminate the Ohio Income Tax. One need not be an economic genius to realize that such a move would result in many state employees losing their jobs. The question is: how many? Perhaps Mr. Kasich should answer that question before he asks for our vote.
